5PSQ-033 Positive impact of an implemented ward pharmacist in a multiprofessional cancer care team in Germany

• Published in: European journal of hospital pharmacy. Science and practice 2022-03, Vol.29 (Suppl 1), p.A129-A129
• Main Authors: Dierkes, S, Freidank, A, Radziwill, R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cancer; Conflicts of interest; Drug stores; Oncology; Patients; Section 5: Patient safety and quality assurance
• ISSN: 2047-9956; 2047-9964
• DOI: 10.1136/ejhpharm-2022-eahp.270

Background and importanceThere is an increasing demand for better management of patients due to high numbers of newly diagnosed cancer patients and increasing complexity of chemotherapeutics. Pharmacists are able to ensure patient’s safety and quality of life.1 Aim and objectivesThe objective of this intervention study was to evaluate the benefit of a pharmacist embedded in a multiprofessional cancer care team on an oncology ward of a maximum care hospital with >1000 beds in Germany.Material and methodsThe present study, conducted from 2020 to 2021, was a single-centre, controlled, retrospective and prospective intervention study consisting of three different phases P0, P1 and P2 with a duration of 3 months each. P0 represented the retrospective control phase as there was no pharmacist on ward. In the prospective phases P1 and P2, the ward pharmacist determined, documented, and solved medication errors (MEs) as part of their daily work. ME was defined as any unintentional mistake in prescription of drugs. MEs can result in avoidable adverse drug events. In P2, newly developed medical standards exist to allow the pharmacist to work in a more structured environment. Throughout all phases, two clinical pharmacists independently identified all MEs which they detected from archived medical files (P0) or electronic patient records (P1 and P2). The classification as clinically relevant ME was set after confirmation by an oncologist to ensure clinical relevance.ResultsThe three phases with 52, 46 and 50 patients, respectively, were comparable regarding the baseline characteristics. For better comparability the MEs refer to the number of medication lines (ML) which comply with one drug per day. The statistical analysis showed a significant reduction of clinically relevant MEs (P0: 34 MEs/100 ML vs P1: 8 MEs/100 ML vs P2: 2 MEs/100 ML; p