PHARMACY PRACTICE A Standardized, Structured Approach to Identifying Drug-Related Problems in the Intensive Care Unit: FASTHUG-MAIDENS (original) (raw)

Role of Clinical Pharmacists in Intensive Care Units

Cureus, 2021

The cost of health care has been rising in the United States and globally and will continue to increase. Intensive care unit (ICU) care carries a significant portion of the cost for the hospitals. The Institute of Medicine and subsequent studies have suggested that medication errors account for significant morbidity, mortality, and cost, frequently encountered in the ICU. Over the past three decades, clinical pharmacists have emerged from dispensing medication to getting involved in direct patient care and have become an integral part of the multidisciplinary critical care team. Clinical pharmacists play a significant role in reducing medication errors and costs, medication reconciliation, antibiotic stewardship, and patient and health care provider education. This review will discuss the health care and ICU cost, the evolving role of clinical pharmacists in managing critically ill patients, and their contributions in the ICU to mitigate the risks, improve patient outcomes, and decrease health care costs.

Drug-related problems identified during pharmacy intervention and consultation: Implementation of an intensive care unit pharmaceutical care model

2020

Aim To identify common drug-related problems (DRPs) during pharmaceutical intervention and consultation in an intensive care unit (ICU); to explore the gap between physicians and pharmacists on their understanding of each other's capabilities and needs. Method A single-center prospective study was conducted in the ICU of a tertiary academic hospital for 21 months. A pharmaceutical care (PC) model was implemented by pharmacy care team, and data was collected during pharmaceutical intervention and consultation. Data analysis was performed on identified DRPs, causes and their relationships. DRPs' frequency during intervention and consultation was compared. Problem-level descriptive analysis and network analysis were conducted using R 3.6.3. Result Implementation of PC model greatly improved the efficacy of pharmacists in both interventions proposed to solve DRPs (from 13.6 to 20.1 cases per month) and number of patients being closely monitored (from 7.7 to 16.9 per month). Pharmacists identified 427 DRPs during pharmaceutical intervention with primarily adverse drug events (ADEs, 34.7%) and effect of treatment not optimal (25.5%), and 245 DRPs during consultation (mainly ADEs, 58.4%). About three-fifths DRPs were caused by antibiotics. Comparing DRPs identified during pharmaceutical intervention and consultation, physicians consulted pharmacists more on questions related to medication safety, while pharmacists also paid attention to treatment effectiveness being consulted less commonly. Conclusion Implementation of PC model is beneficial in guiding pharmacy practice and improving efficacy especially under limited human resources. Physicians and pharmacists shall continue ensuring drug safety and be familiar with the scope of PC and clinical need for a better cooperation.

Comparative analysis of clinical pharmacy interventions in a pediat- ric intensive care unit

2018

Objective: The objectives of this study were 1) to describe and characterize interventions performed by a clinical pharmacist and 2) provide a comparative analysis of length of stay, mortality, and drug charges in control and intervention groups. Design: This was a retrospective analysis of clinical pharmacy interventions performed in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) over two years. The clinical pharmacy faculty member was a dual-residency trained specialist in pediatric critical care, and was on-site in the PICU for approximately 0.5 full time equivalents. Setting and patients: The interventions occurred in an 18-bed medical-surgical PICU in a tertiary care children's hospital. All patients admitted to the PICU during the study period were included. Interventions: The intervention group was comprised of patients admitted to the PICU during the study period for which the clinical pharmacist suggested changes in medication therapy. All other PICU patients were included in t...

Drug-related problems identified during pharmaceutical care interventions in an intensive care unit at a tertiary university hospital

SAGE Open Medicine

Introduction: Drug-related problems could potentially worsen the clinical outcomes in critically ill patients. Critically ill patients are generally considered more vulnerable to harm from drug-related problems due to frequent medication-related events and complicated clinical courses. However, drug-related problems identified by on-ward clinical pharmacists in medical intensive care units in Thailand are not well reported. This study reports clinically relevant data with the description of identified problems, common causes of drug-related problems, and pharmacists’ interventions performed in real world, so that it may serve as an educational material for pharmacists who implement a pharmaceutical care and participate in medical intensive care units. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted at a tertiary university hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, from January 2015 to December 2020. The drug-related problems were categorized according to Cipolle et al.’s classificatio...

Interventions of a clinical pharmacist in a medical intensive care unit – A retrospective analysis

Interventions of a clinical pharmacist in a medical intensive care unit – A retrospective analysis, 2020

Several studies demonstrated a significant decrease in prescription errors, adverse drug events, treatment costs and improved patient outcomes, when a clinical pharmacist (CP) was a full member of a multidisciplinary team in the intensive care unit (ICU). Our aim was to evaluate the activities of a CP, included in a 12-bed medical ICU team of a university hospital in the course of several months. We conducted a retrospective analysis of all the CP’s interventions from March 2017 to November 2017, carried out and documented after reviewing and discussing patients’ medical data with the treating ICU physicians. We identified four main categories of CP’s interventions: pharmacotherapy adjustments to kidney function (PAKF category), drug-drug interactions (DDIs category), therapeutic monitoring of drugs with narrow therapeutic index (TDM category), and drug administration by the nasogastric tube (NGT category). During the study period, 533 patients were admitted to the medical ICU. The CP reviewed the medical data of 321 patients and suggested 307 interventions in 95 patients. There were 147 interventions of the PAKF category, 57 interventions of the TDM category, 30 interventions of the NGT category, and 22 interventions of the DDIs category. Fifty-one interventions were unspecified. The majority of all interventions (203/307) were related to antimicrobial drugs. ICU physicians completely accepted 80.2% of the CP’s suggestions. We observed that regular participation of the CP in the medical ICU team contributed to more individualized and improved pharmacological treatment of patients. Therefore, ICU teams should be encouraged to include CPs as regular team members.

Pharmacist recommendations in an intensive care unit: three-year clinical activities

Revista Brasileira de Terapia Intensiva, 2015

Objective: To analyze the clinical activities performed and the accepted pharmacist recommendations made by a pharmacist as a part of his/her daily routine in an adult clinical intensive care unit over a period of three years. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and exploratory study was conducted at a tertiary university hospital from June 2010 to May 2013, in which pharmacist recommendations were categorized and analyzed. Results: A total of 834 pharmacist recommendations (278 per year, on average) were analyzed and distributed across 21 categories. The recommendations were mainly made to physicians (n = 699; 83.8%) and concerned management of dilutions (n = 120; 14.4%), dose adjustment Conflicts of interest: None.

Position paper on critical care pharmacy services

Critical Care Medicine, 2000

Objective. To identify and describe the scope of practice that characterizes the critical care pharmacist and critical care pharmacy services. Specifically, the goals were to define the level of clinical practice and specialized skills characterizing the critical care pharmacist as clinician, educator, researcher, and manager; and to recommend fundamental, desirable, and optimal pharmacy services and personnel requirements for the provision of pharmaceutical care to critically ill patients. Hospitals having comprehensive resources as well as those with more limited resources were considered. Data Sources. Consensus of critical care pharmacists from institutions of various sizes providing critical care services within several types of pharmacy practice models was obtained, including community-based and academic practice settings. Existing guidelines and literature describing pharmacy practice and drug use processes were reviewed and adapted for the critical care setting. Conclusions. By combining the strengths and expertise of critical care pharmacy specialists with existing supporting literature, these recommendations define the level of clinical practice and specialized skills that characterize the critical care pharmacist as clinician, educator, researcher, and administrator. This position paper recommends fundamental, desirable, and optimal pharmacy services as well as personnel requirements for the provision of pharmaceutical care to critically ill patients.

Clinical pharmacist assessment of drug-related problems among intensive care unit patients in a Turkish university hospital

BMC Health Services Research

Background Critically ill patients treated in the intensive care units (ICUs) often suffer from side effects and drug-related problems (DRPs) that can be life-threatening. A way to prevent DRPs and improve drug safety and efficacy is to include clinical pharmacists in the clinical team. This study aims to evaluate the classification of drug-related problems and the implementation of clinical pharmacy services by a clinical pharmacist in the ICU of a university hospital in Turkey. Methods This study was carried out prospectively between December 2020 and July 2021 in Gazi University Medical Faculty Hospital Internal Diseases ICU. All patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit for more than 24 h were included in the study. During the study, the clinical pharmacist's interventions and other clinical services for patients were recorded. DRPs were classed according to the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe V.8.02. Results A total of 151 patients were included during the study p...