If the prescribing activity by general practitioners were supported by the advice of a pharmacist, a large part of the errors would be avoided, especially with patients at risk. This was verified by a study published by The Lancet, on a sample of 72 patients in therapy with drugs often associated with errors, such as for example ace inhibitors, diuretics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The doctors involved in the study were equipped with a computerized system to receive feedback from patients, and some professionals were randomized to receive the advice of a pharmacist with whom the problems identified by the system and the action plan were discussed. This required about two days a week for 12 weeks in order to manage the problem and in some cases the patient was asked for check-ups. After six months of follow-up, there was almost 50% less probability of errors in elderly patients taking ACE inhibitors or diuretics, 42% less in prescribing NSAIDs in patients with a history of peptic and gastric ulcers, and 27% less in prescribing beta blockers in patients with asthma. «We know that doctors are aware of the risks of the drugs most commonly associated with adverse events» explain the authors of the survey «but errors do occur and our study indicates a way to deal with them. We believe it is urgent” they conclude “to extend this type of intervention conducted by the pharmacist to all general practitioners to avoid unnecessary errors in the future”.
The Lancet, Early Online Publication, February 21, 2012
22 February 2012 – Pharmacist33
Information technology to reduce prescription errors
 Medication errors are an important cause of potentially avoidable morbidity and mortality in primary and secondary care. Results from the PINCER study highlight how a pharmacist-led, information technology-based intervention reduces errors in prescribing of drugs in primary care and is cheap and easy to implement, costing £75 for each error avoided. Three clinically important and commonly made errors were analysed: non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prescribed to those with a history of peptic ulcer without co-prescription of a proton-pump inhibitor; β-blockers prescribed to those with a history of asthma; and long-term prescription of angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or loop diuretics to those 75 years or older without assessment of urea and electrolytes in the preceding 15 months. |
