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Evaluation of pharmaceutical interventions documented by a pharmacy technician: where do pharmacy technicians have the biggest impact to avoid drug-related problems?

European Statement

Clinical Pharmacy Services

Author(s)

Ruth Borchers, Linda Krampe, Andreas Fischer, Christian Thomas, Holger Knoth

Why was it done?

The aim of this study was to identify the clinical pharmacy services where the integrating of pharmacy technicians have the biggest impact to avoid drug-related problems.

What was done?

In the field of clinical pharmacy services there are activities that are suitable for pharmacy technicians under the supervision of a pharmacist. At the university hospital in Dresden one full-time pharmacist and one half-time pharmacy technician (4h/d) are looking after 80 beds in the department of urology. The main tasks of the pharmacy technician are medication reconciliation as well as clinical prioritisation by using guidelines to identify patients who are at high risk of drug-related problems.

How was it done?

Since 2019 the pharmacy technician is recording the interventions in a categorical excel sheet, there are two documentation weeks per quarter. The categories are drug name, short description of the drug related problem, intervention, classification (dose-related problems, consultation of general practitioner, consultation of patient, electronic prescription, other drug-related problems after discussion with the pharmacist, drug substitution).

What has been achieved?

During 22 documentation weeks from 01/2019 till 09/2020 the pharmacy technician documented 468 interventions. The main interventions are drug substitution on admission considering local guidelines (n=181; 39%), consultation of the general practitioner because of identified discrepancies on the medicine lists (n=138; 29%) and consultation of patients because of identified discrepancies (n=78; 17%). Dose-related interventions and other drug-related problems are detected by the pharmacy technician and discussed with doctors under the supervision of the pharmacist (n=49; 10%).

What next?

Especially in the field of medication reconciliation trained pharmacy technicians can be suitable to prevent drug-related problems. The consultation of general practitioners and patients because of identified discrepancies on the medication lists are time-intensive and probably would not happen in the same way without integration of the pharmacy technician. The drug substitution in consideration of local guidelines and the preparation of the electronic prescription lead to fewer queries from nurses or doctors.
Further research should focus on the quality of pharmaceutical interventions conducted by pharmacy technicians under the supervision of pharmacists.

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