Pharmacist improves safety, quality of care in onco-haematology, bone marrow transplant units

Pharmacist interventions done in onco-haematology and bone marrow transplant inpatient units have led to improvements in safety and quality of care, results of a recent study have shown.

This prospective and quantitative study was carried out from February 2018 to July 2018 in the onco-haematology and bone marrow transplant inpatient units of a tertiary teaching hospital in Brazil. A clinical pharmacist was tasked to detect prescribing errors as well as perform interventions. The authors then examined the type and incidence of prescribing errors, error severity, type of pharmacist interventions, potential impact of interventions in patient care, and intervention acceptance rates.

Of the 1,172 prescriptions evaluated in this study, 135 (9 percent) contained errors, the most common being related to prescribing the wrong dose (31.8 percent). Specifically, the most frequent errors seen in onco-haematology were wrong dose and omission of drug, while in bone marrow transplantation, wrong dose and inappropriate dilution occurred most often.

The clinical pharmacist carried out 135 interventions, of which the most common was related to the treatment regimen (41.5 percent). Serious errors and very significant pharmacist interventions occurred frequently in both inpatient units. In addition, there was a high acceptance rate of pharmacist intervention recorded at 90 percent.

“It is known that clinical pharmacists intercept prescribing errors and contribute to patient safety in several medical specialties,” the authors said.