Class of 2005 Abstract / Objectives: The purpose of this retrospective investigation is to compare the quantity, importance, and associated cost implications of drug-related problems identified (and ultimately resolved) through order entry/verification versus other clinical activities of a decentralized critical care pharmacist.
Methods: The data from this study was collected by one decentralized pharmacist assigned to a surgical intensive care unit. A standard form was used to document all interventions during the period of this observation. For the purposes of this retrospective evaluation the following data will be extracted from the existing database: amount of time spent performing various clinical activities, how drug-related problems were identified (e.g., order entry verification versus chart reviews), the time it took to identify and resolve drug-related problems, a general description of interventions, the importance of the intervention, and the estimated economic impact associated with interventions.
Results: In only a 41⁄2 month period, 111 patients would have likely experienced an adverse drug event had the ICU pharmacist not intervened. This equals a cost avoidance to the institution of anywhere from $200,000 to $280,000 for as little on average of 15-30 minutes of the pharmacist time.
Implications: As previous studies have shown, the presence of a pharmacist in an ICU is crucial to lowering the incidence of adverse drug events. Our results have proven the interventions pharmacist make during team rounding and chart review are not only cost effective, but substantially improve patient care.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/624761 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Mrsan, Melinda |
| Contributors | Erstad, Brian, Kopp, Brian, College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Report |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. |
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