Positive evidence for clinical pharmacist interventions during interdisciplinary rounding at a psychiatric hospital
Matej Štuhec, Valentina Tement
Abstract
Clinical pharmacists have not yet become an integral part of interdisciplinary ward rounds in most psychiatric hospitals across the European Union. This retrospective observational pre-post study examined the impact of clinical pharmacist recommendations in an interdisciplinary medical team during psychiatric hospital rounding. The study included all patients in a Slovenian psychiatric hospital who were hospitalized 2019-2020. The clinical pharmacist made 315 recommendations for a total of 224 participants (average age M = 59.4, median = 56). Psychiatrists accepted 295 (93.7%) of the recommendations. After the recommendations, the number of expressed and potential drug-related problems decreased in 166 (93.8%) and 129 (93.8%) interventions, respectively. Three months after discharge, 222 accepted recommendations were continued (70.5%). The most common recommendations were related to antipsychotics (19.4%, N = 61) followed by antidepressants (16.8%, N = 53). Including a clinical pharmacist in the interdisciplinary ward rounds at a psychiatric hospital reduced the number of expressed and potential drug-related problems with a very high recommendation acceptance rate. These results are the first in Central Europe to explore the benefits of including a clinical pharmacist in ward rounding.