Prescription validation and pharmaceutical intervention in an adult emergency department: Implementation and evaluation

Summary Background The aim of this study was to develop a prescription validation procedure in an emergency department (ED) in order to improve drug safety for patients in a setting with a high prevalence of iatrogenic risk. Material and methods A pharmacy resident performed pharmaceutical analyses of prescriptions written in the ED in the morning (8:30–12:30). Working under the responsibility of a senior pharmacist, the resident had access to patient charts and attended ED staff meetings. Pharmaceutical interventions were proposed to the attending physician if the prescription deviated from good practices according to the prescription validation methodology of the French society of clinical pharmacy (SFPC). Results Four hundred and eighty-one prescriptions were analyzed from November 11, 2015 through April 15, 2016. Pharmaceutical interventions were proposed for 73 prescriptions (15.2%) because of drug errors. Contraindications, overdosing, and inappropriate administration routes accounted for 78% of these errors. Discussion/Conclusion The rate of pharmaceutical intervention was high, providing evidence of the need for prescription validation in this kind of medical ward in order to improve the quality of drug management and avoid iatrogenic risks.