How Often Are Pharmacist Recommendations Followed by Emergency Physicians in Emergency Departments?

Clinical pharmacy has played a role in Emergency Departments (ED). The presence of pharmacists have been shown to reduce medication errors and improve the medication history taken at admission. In Denmark a recent study revealed that clinical pharmacists identified medication problems in 25% of all admission to the ED, of which 47 % were considered to be serious.

However, the pharmacist recommendations are of little value if they are not acknowledged or followed by the physicians.

The aim of the present study was to analyze how often and under which circumstances the physicians made use of pharmaceutical recommendations in an ED with a mixed patient population with special attention to those recommendations, which were of significant or disastrous importance.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pharmacist Recommendations

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 301

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Kolding, Denmark, 6000
    • Kolding Sygehus

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 15 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

all acute admissions to emergency department

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- all acute admissions to emergency department who were treated with one or more drugs

Exclusion Criteria:

- children less than 15 years.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
number of pharmacist recommendations	up to 48 hours after admission

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern Denmark

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Mogensen CB, Olsen I, Thisted AR. Pharmacist advice is accepted more for medical than for surgical patients in an emergency department. Dan Med J. 2013 Aug;60(8):A4682.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2008
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2009
• Study Completion (Actual): March 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 5, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 5, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): November 7, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 8, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2012
• Last Verified: November 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: SLB-ED-02-2012