Role and Services of a Pharmacist in the Prevention of Medication Errors: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review aims to investigate the role and responsibilities of pharmacists in prevention of medication errors. Also to evaluate pharmacist-centered strategies that has an impact in medication error reduction and prevention. Method: A search was conducted through the following databases PubMed Central, Scopus, Trip, Prospero, Medline and Google Scholar using terms related to “medication errors prevention” or “pharmacist-related errors”. Other search terms included “pharmacis t(s)”, “prevention”, “medication error (s)”, “dispensing error (s)”, “drug incidence (s)”, “medication malpractice (s)”. Included studies were prospective and retrospective cohort, case-control and cross-sectional full-text studies published in the last 10 years (2010-2020). The review team screened the articles for inclusion criteria and evaluated the quality of the articles. The PRISMA Guidelines were used to report the selected articles and screening process. Then, the articles was sent to a third independent reviewer for quality assessment using the STROBE Checklist. Results: A clinical pharmacist’s duties are to supervise the medication treatment of admitted patients and to notify the healthcare team when a discrepancy is found. A total of seven reviewed studies highlighted the importance and positive impact of increasing the number of the clinical pharmacist’s interventions. Literature showed that average of 64.9% of medication discrepancies happen during patient discharge, highlighting the necessity of a clinical pharmacist intervention at that stage. The systematic review focused on the significant impact of clinical pharmacist role in preventing errors (studies reported=5); encouraging pharmacist-led education to increase medication error awareness (studies reported =5), incorporating better and innovative pharmacy-related work approaches (studies reported =4); and implementing appropriate and secured policies for medication error reporting (studies reported =1). The screened literature highlighted the significant reduction in the number of medication errors and an increase in medication error identification and awareness. These findings suggest the crucial role of pharmacist in healthcare policies for the prevention of medication errors and patient safety. Conclusion: This systematic review suggests multiple pharmacist-centered strategies that have been implemented in several studies showing the positive impact in the reduction and prevention of medication errors commenced by not only the pharmacist but the rest of the healthcare team.

Eczane Personellerinin Akılcı İlaç Kullanımı ile İlgili Bilgi, Tutum ve Davranışlarının Değerlendirilmesi

“…According to studies, OTC products are an important cause of adverse drug reactions, especially for the elderly. Nearly 65% of medication errors can be prevented with the intervention of a clinical pharmacist (18). The role of pharmacists in choosing OTC group drugs appropriately and informing the patient correctly should not be overlooked (19)(20).…”

Interventions to reduce the incidence of medical error and its financial burden in health care systems: A systematic review of systematic reviews

“…Twentyfive reviews focused on using electronic systems ( 14 , 16 , 31 , 32 , 38 – 58 ). Twelve reviews focused on pharmacists and clinical pharmacist involvement in the treatment process ( 13 , 17 , 32 , 41 , 59 – 66 ). Five reviews presented leadership or managerial manners interventions ( 12 , 56 , 67 – 69 ).…”

5S management improves the service quality in the outpatient-emergency pharmacy: from management process optimisation to staff capacity enhancement

“…With the progression of the 5S project, we found the overall work attitude and professional service have been improved according to the feedback of patients from the satisfaction questionnaire (table 1). The promotion of integral staff quality and the reformation of working conditions in the outpatient-emergency pharmacy can be supported by each other, leading to the improvement of pharmacy work such as the decrease in the dispensing error rate and dispensing time 34–36. The elevation of the professional capability of pharmacists verified by the increased satisfaction rate of patients could help them establish and realise their career planning and acquire more developmental opportunities, which could be the future direction of continuous improvement programmes in the outpatient-emergency pharmacy.…”