[A new joint approach to drug management: clinical pharmacy services and risk management unit].

Introduction: According to the "To Err is Human" report, medication-related errors are common in medicine and may have several and different effects. Clinical Pharmacy is a leading worldwide established pharmacy service which has been improving the quality of care for the last 30 years. The accumulated experience shows improved quality of care, improved patient safety and economic benefit. These understandings led to the definition and expansion of the Clinical Pharmacist Intervention Program and a joint project with the Risk Management Unit was created.
Methods: A characterization process was conducted, parameters were defined for monitoring and surveillance and interventions were devised. The relevant data requiring pharmacist intervention was defined (e.g., dose adjustments, contraindications, side-effects); a report was devised, based on the patient's electronic medical record; daily follow-up included analysis, stratification, quantification and understanding of the different types of pharmacist interventions. The pharmacist interventions were summed up and assessed for performance and quality control.
Results: Between March 2013 and February 2014 the medical records of 14,499 patients were examined in our hospital Only in 16% of the records an active pharmacist intervention was performed, according to the parameters defined. Interventions for potentially high risk events such as therapeutic duplication, drug administration in spite of contraindication and in spite of documented allergy were very rare, less than 2% of all the pharmacist interventions.
Discussion and Conclusions: This joint venture, which is based on an existing platform, reflects an up-to-date view of an important facet of the clinical work performed at the hospital, helps identify trends, potential failures and vulnerabilities with regard to medication treatment and allows the formulation of intervention programs to improve the quality and safety of drug therapy.