Pharmacist intervention prevents medication errors in oncology ward

A recent study has shown the clinical relevance of pharmacy services in an oncology ward and the significance of medicopharmaceutical collaboration to prevent medication errors.

Analysis was conducted in 3,542 prescriptions of 526 adult cancer patients and revealed 450 drug-related problems (12.7 percent of the prescriptions) primarily related to analgesics (31.5 percent).

Untreated indication (31.3 percent) was the most common medication problem, followed by overdosing (17.1 percent), drug–drug interactions (12.4 percent), underdosing (11.1 percent), administration omissions (6.7 percent), drug not indicated (6.0 percent), and contraindication (5.3 percent).

Pharmacist interventions (n=450) resulted in drug additions (30.7 percent), dose adjustments (27.1 percent), treatment discontinuations (20.0 percent), recall of treatment (6.2 percent), replacement of a drug with another one (5.1 percent), administration optimization (4.0 percent), therapeutic drug monitoring (3.1 percent), alternate routes of administration (2.5 percent), and extension of treatment duration (1.3 percent).

Most of the interventions (98 percent) were accepted and implemented by the medical staff: 172 (38.2 percent) as having a significant clinical impact on the patient, 88 (19.6 percent) as having a very significant clinical impact, and 71 (15.8 percent) as having a potential vital impact.

This prospective, descriptive, observational study was conducted from July 2018 to June 2019 at the Department of Medical Oncology at the National Institute of Oncology in Morocco. The clinical pharmacist assigned to the department performed medication reviews concerning hospitalized adult cancer patients daily.

“Clinical pharmacists are contributing to safe medication use by providing comprehensive management to patients and medical staff,” the authors said.