Sara Modig1,2, Lydia Holmdahl3, Åsa Bondesson4,5. 1. Department of Medicines Management and Informatics in Skåne County, Kristianstad, Sweden. sara.modig@med.lu.se. 2. Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö/Family Medicine, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. sara.modig@med.lu.se. 3. Department of Medicine, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. 4. Department of Medicines Management and Informatics in Skåne County, Kristianstad, Sweden. 5. Department of Laboratory Medicine/Clinical Pharmacology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: One way of preventing and solving drug-related problems in frail elderly is to perform team-based medication reviews. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of the clinical pharmacy service to primary care using structured medication reviews, focusing on the clinical significance of the recommendations made by clinical pharmacists. SETTING: A random sample of 150 patients (out of 1541) who received structured team based medication reviews. The patients lived at a geriatric nursing home or were ≥65 years and lived in ordinary housing with medication-related community help. METHOD: Based on information on symptoms, kidney function, blood pressure, diagnoses and the medication list, a pharmacist identified possible drug-related problems and supplied recommendations for the general practitioner to act on. Two independent physicians retrospectively ranked the clinical significance of the recommendations according to Hatoum, with rankings ranging between 1 (adverse significance) and 6 (extremely significant). Main outcome measure The clinical significance of the recommendations. Results In total 349 drug-related problems were identified, leading to recommendations. The vast majority of the recommendations (96 %) were judged to have significance 3 or higher and more than the half were judged to have significance 4 or higher. CONCLUSION: The high proportion of clinically significant recommendations provided by pharmacists when performing team-based medication reviews suggest that these clinical pharmacy services have potential to increase prescribing quality. As such, the medication reviews have the potential for contributing to a better and safer drug therapy for elderly patients.
BACKGROUND: One way of preventing and solving drug-related problems in frail elderly is to perform team-based medication reviews. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of the clinical pharmacy service to primary care using structured medication reviews, focusing on the clinical significance of the recommendations made by clinical pharmacists. SETTING: A random sample of 150 patients (out of 1541) who received structured team based medication reviews. The patients lived at a geriatric nursing home or were ≥65 years and lived in ordinary housing with medication-related community help. METHOD: Based on information on symptoms, kidney function, blood pressure, diagnoses and the medication list, a pharmacist identified possible drug-related problems and supplied recommendations for the general practitioner to act on. Two independent physicians retrospectively ranked the clinical significance of the recommendations according to Hatoum, with rankings ranging between 1 (adverse significance) and 6 (extremely significant). Main outcome measure The clinical significance of the recommendations. Results In total 349 drug-related problems were identified, leading to recommendations. The vast majority of the recommendations (96 %) were judged to have significance 3 or higher and more than the half were judged to have significance 4 or higher. CONCLUSION: The high proportion of clinically significant recommendations provided by pharmacists when performing team-based medication reviews suggest that these clinical pharmacy services have potential to increase prescribing quality. As such, the medication reviews have the potential for contributing to a better and safer drug therapy for elderly patients.