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Jermini M, Fonzo-Christe C, Blondon K, Milaire C, Stirnemann J, Bonnabry P, Guignard B. Financial impact of medication reviews by clinical pharmacists to reduce in-hospital adverse drug events: a return-on-investment analysis. Int J Clin Pharm 2024; 46:496-505. [PMID: 38315303 PMCID: PMC10960916 DOI: 10.1007/s11096-023-01683-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Adverse drug events contribute to rising health care costs. Clinical pharmacists can reduce their risks by identifying and solving drug-related problems (DRPs) through medication review. AIM To develop an economic model to determine whether medication reviews performed by clinical pharmacists could lead to a reduction in health care costs associated with the prevention of potential adverse drug events. METHOD Two pharmacists performed medication reviews during ward rounds in an internal medicine setting over one year. Avoided costs were estimated by monetizing five categories of DRPs (improper drug selection, drug interactions, untreated indications, inadequate dosages, and drug use without an indication). An expert panel assessed potential adverse drug events and their probabilities of occurrence for 20 randomly selected DRPs in each category. The costs of adverse drug events were extracted from internal hospital financial data. A partial economic study from a hospital perspective then estimated the annual costs avoided by resolving DRPs identified by 3 part-time clinical pharmacists (0.9 full-time equivalent) from 2019 to 2020. The return on investment (ROI) of medication review was calculated. RESULTS The estimated annual avoided costs associated with the potential adverse drug events induced by 676 DRPs detected was € 304,170. The cost of a 0.9 full-time equivalent clinical pharmacist was € 112,408. Extrapolated to 1 full-time equivalent, the annual net savings was € 213,069 or an ROI of 1-1.71. Sensitivity analyses showed that the economic model was robust. CONCLUSION This economic model revealed the positive financial impact and favorable return on investment of a medication review intervention performed by clinical pharmacists. These findings should encourage the future deployment of a pharmacist-led adverse drug events prevention program.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mégane Jermini
- Pharmacy, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle Perret Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Caroline Fonzo-Christe
- Pharmacy, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle Perret Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Katherine Blondon
- Medical and Quality Directorate, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | | | - Jérôme Stirnemann
- Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Pascal Bonnabry
- Pharmacy, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle Perret Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
- Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Bertrand Guignard
- Pharmacy, Geneva University Hospitals, Rue Gabrielle Perret Gentil 4, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland
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Aguilera C, Danés I, Guillén E, Vimes A, Bosch M, Cereza G, Sánchez-Montalvá A, Campos-Varela I, Miarons M, Mestre-Torres J, Agustí A. Safety of Drugs Used during the First Wave of COVID-19: A Hospital-Registry-Based Study. Diagnostics (Basel) 2022; 12:diagnostics12071612. [PMID: 35885517 PMCID: PMC9316110 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics12071612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2022] [Revised: 06/02/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergency of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to the off-label use of drugs without data on their toxicity profiles in patients with COVID-19, or on their concomitant use. Patients included in the COVID-19 Patient Registry of a tertiary hospital during the first wave were analyzed to evaluate the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) with the selected treatments. Twenty-one percent of patients (197 out of 933) had at least one ADR, with a total of 240 ADRs. Patients with ADRs were more commonly treated with multiple drugs for COVID-19 infection than patients without ADRs (p < 0.001). They were younger (median 62 years vs. 70.1 years; p < 0.001) and took less medication regularly (69.5% vs. 75.7%; p = 0.031). The most frequent ADRs were gastrointestinal (67.1%), hepatobiliary (10.8%), and cardiac disorders (3.3%). Drugs more frequently involved included lopinavir/ritonavir (82.2%), hydroxychloroquine (72.1%), and azithromycin (66.5%). Although most ADRs recovered without sequelae, fatal cases were described, even though the role of the disease could not be completely ruled out. In similar situations, efforts should be made to use the drugs in the context of clinical trials, and to limit off-label use to those drugs with a better benefit/risk profile in specific situations and for patients at high risk of poor disease prognosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Aguilera
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
- Immunomediated Diseases and Innovative Therapies Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Immaculada Danés
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
- Immunomediated Diseases and Innovative Therapies Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
- Correspondence:
| | - Elena Guillén
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
| | - Alba Vimes
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
| | - Montserrat Bosch
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
- Immunomediated Diseases and Innovative Therapies Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Gloria Cereza
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
- Immunomediated Diseases and Innovative Therapies Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute of Pharmacology Foundation, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Adrián Sánchez-Montalvá
- International Health and Tuberculosis Unit, Infectious Diseases Department, National Referral Centre for Tropical Diseases, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain;
| | - Isabel Campos-Varela
- Liver Unit, Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain;
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (CIBERehd), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, 28220 Madrid, Spain
| | - Marta Miarons
- Pharmacy Department, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain;
| | - Jaume Mestre-Torres
- Internal Medicine Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain;
| | - Antònia Agustí
- Clinical Pharmacology Service, Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; (C.A.); (E.G.); (A.V.); (M.B.); (A.A.)
- Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain;
- Immunomediated Diseases and Innovative Therapies Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute, 08035 Barcelona, Spain
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Skalafouris C, Reny JL, Stirnemann J, Grosgurin O, Eggimann F, Grauser D, Teixeira D, Jermini M, Bruggmann C, Bonnabry P, Guignard B. Development and assessment of PharmaCheck: an electronic screening tool for the prevention of twenty major adverse drug events. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2022; 22:146. [PMID: 35642053 PMCID: PMC9154036 DOI: 10.1186/s12911-022-01885-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Adverse drug events (ADEs) can be prevented by deploying clinical decision support systems (CDSS) that directly assist physicians, via computerized order entry systems, and clinical pharmacists performing medication reviews as part of medical rounds. However, physicians using CDSS are known to be exposed to the alert-fatigue phenomenon. Our study aimed to assess the performance of PharmaCheck—a CDSS to help clinical pharmacists detect high-risk situations with the potential to lead to ADEs—and its impact on clinical pharmacists’ activities.
Methods
Twenty clinical rules, divided into four risk classes, were set for the daily screening of high-risk situations in the electronic health records of patients admitted to our General Internal Medicine Department. Alerts to clinical pharmacists encouraged them to telephone prescribers and suggest any necessary treatment adjustments. PharmaCheck’s performance was assessed using the intervention’s positive predictive value (PPV), which characterizes the proportion of interventions for each alert triggered. PharmaCheck’s impact was assessed by considering clinical pharmacists as a filter for ruling out futile alerts and by comparing the final clinical PPV with a pharmacist (the proportion of interventions that led to a change in the medical regimen) to the final clinical PPV without a pharmacist.
Results
Over 132 days, 447 alerts were triggered for 383 patients, leading to 90 interventions (overall intervention PPV = 20.1%). By risk class, intervention PPVs made up 26.9% (n = 65/242) of abnormal laboratory value alerts, 3.1% (4/127) of alerts for contraindicated medications or medications to be used with caution, 28.2% (20/71) of drug–drug interaction alerts, and 14.3% (1/7) of inadequate mode of administration alerts. Clinical PPVs reached 71.0% (64/90) when pharmacists filtered alerts and 14% (64/242) if they were not doing it.
Conclusion
PharmaCheck enabled clinical pharmacists to improve their traditional processes and broaden their coverage by focusing on 20 high-risk situations. Alert management by pharmacists seemed to be a more effective way of preventing risky situations and alert-fatigue than a model addressing alerts to physicians exclusively. Some fine-tuning could enhance PharmaCheck's performance by considering the information quality of triggers, the variability of clinical settings, and the fact that some prescription processes are already highly secured.
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