Prospective cohort study of adverse events monitored by hospital pharmacists. Hospital Adverse Event Monitoring Study (HAEMS) Group.

PURPOSE: To examine the feasibility of pharmacist-led intensive hospital monitoring of adverse events (AEs) associated with newly marketed drugs. SUBJECTS/
SETTING: 303 patients admitted to Southampton Hospitals who were prescribed selected newly marketed drugs during their inpatient stay in 1998.
METHODS: Prospective observational study. Patients were identified from computerized pharmacy records, clinical pharmacist ward rounds, dispensary records or via nursing staff. The pharmacist reviewed medical notes and recorded AEs, suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and reasons for stopping drugs. OUTCOMES: Incidence of AEs, ADRs; proportionate agreement between the physician's and pharmacist's event recording.
RESULTS: 303 patients were monitored. Of the patients taking newly marketed drugs 92% were identifiable using pharmacy computer systems and pharmacist ward visits. There were 21 (7%) suspected ADRs detected during this pilot study. The types of adverse events detected were broadly similar to those identified by general practice-based prescription event monitoring. However, biochemical changes featured more frequently than in general practice. Differences between adverse events recorded by pharmacist and physician were systematic and attributed to differences in event coding.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacist-led monitoring in a typical NHS hospital setting was effective at detecting ADRs in newly marketed drugs. However, this effort might have been substantially less time-consuming and more effective were electronic patient records (EPRs) available. Pharmacy computer systems are not designed to be patient focused and are therefore unable to identify patients taking newly marketed drugs. It is argued that future EPR and computerised patient-specific prescribing systems should be designed to capture this data in the same way as some US systems are currently able to do.