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ABSTRACT: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are associated with a high morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. The prevention of SSIs is based on a combination of preoperative preparation, surgical techniques, perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) and postoperative wound care. Despite an abundance of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of antimicrobials to prevent SSIs, the use of antimicrobial prophylaxis in this clinical setting is associated with inappropriate timing and selection and excessive duration of administration. To date, pharmacy interns (PIs) have not been involved in this process. The aim of this study was to evaluate feasibility of involving PIs in monitoring adherence to the guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis in surgery patients.
The study was conducted in seven hospitals in Germany within the framework of the project "Pharmacy interns on the ward" (P-STAT2). Twenty-seven PIs participated, either from either May to October 2008 or from November 2008 to April 2009. Each patient admitted to the participating wards was consecutively monitored. PIs documented the antibiotic prophylaxis and checked the adherence with the hospital ward's PAP guidelines taking both the choice of antibiotic drug and the duration of PAP into account. The costs of antibiotics, personnel and material were calculated in cases of non-adherence with guidelines.
This is the first time that PIs were involved in monitoring antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines. A total of 6,167 patients were enrolled (mean age 58.3 ± 19.6 years; 47.1% male); of these, 5,064 patients underwent surgery and were ultimately available for evaluation. Guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis were followed in 70.7% of the cases.
The study revealed that many patients do not receive the appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis despite the fact that guidelines are in place. Based on these results, we conclude that PIs may play an important role in antibiotic prophylaxis management.
Infection 10/2011; 40(2):131-7. · 2.66 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Identifying, preventing and resolving drug-related problems (DRP) is an important issue in the pharmaceutical care process. Because DRPs have been detected in a more systematic way, the need for a classification system to document, classify and evaluate the collected data has become necessary. The objective was to develop a classification system for DRPs within the hospital setting, to evaluate the practicality and to assess the inter-rater reliability.
All DRPs defined in PI-Doc and PCNE, which are relevant in the hospital setting, were included. Further relevant DRPs identified in other projects in a hospital setting as well as DRPs from the daily work on the ward were collected, and a short description of each DRP was written. A prospective study was conducted at Klinikum Fulda, Germany, in both a non-surgical and a surgical setting to explore whether the new classification system is suitable to classify DRPs in clinics with different specifications. For assessing the inter-rater reliability, 24 standardized case reports were provided. All participants classified them independently. The inter-rater reliability was analysed using Kappa coefficient.
A classification system for DRPs in the hospital setting (APS-Doc) was established with 10 main categories and 48 subcategories. Practicality was assessed in 250 patients in a non-surgical ward as well as in 100 patients in a surgical ward. The inter-rater agreement was 0·68 (95% CI, 0·66-0·69) for main categories, which comprises substantial agreement. Moderate agreement (κ = 0·58; 95% CI, 0·58-0·59) was demonstrated for the subcategories.
A new hierarchical classification system for DRPs in the hospital setting has been developed. APS-Doc seems suitable for various parts of the medication process such as medication reconciliation and drug therapy within both non-surgical and surgical wards. Inter-rater reliability was found to be substantial in the main categories and moderate in the subcategories.
Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 07/2011; 37(3):276-81. · 1.57 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: To investigate a new method for evaluating counselling performance of staff in community pharmacies and to assess the quality of patient counselling.
Trained pseudo customers, instructed to play their role according to two different self-medication scenarios, visited voluntarily participating community pharmacies in Berlin. After documenting the counselling process, immediately after each visit, outside the pharmacy on an assessment form, the pseudo customer re-entered the pharmacy and gave detailed performance feedback to the counsellor and the pharmacist in charge in order to provide support for improving counselling skills and practice behaviour, when appropriate. This was followed with a written summary of the general performance of all participating pharmacies and additional individual feedback and suggestions for improvement. Educational needs were identified for subsequent performance-based educational strategies such as group-workshops, team-training and on-site team-coaching.
Forty-nine community pharmacies in Berlin volunteered to participate in this pilot study. Ninety-eight per cent of the participating pharmacies offered advice. However, in 36% of the cases, advice was only given on request. The different types of scenarios--presentation of a symptom or request for a specific product--made a great difference to the spontaneity of questions and advice. At least one question to check on accuracy of self-diagnosis was asked in 95% of the cases of symptom presentation but in only 47% of the cases of specific product request. Information on appropriate self-medication was provided on at least one item in 74% of pseudo customer visits, but most of the time the information was not sufficient. Communication skills (nonverbal elements, comprehensibility etc.) were very good or good in 54% of the visits. Potential for improvement was mainly in relation to the use of open-ended questions to gain more information and on counselling about appropriate self-medication. Direct feedback was given in 96% of the pharmacies (one person refused to accept feedback and one feedback had to be postponed because of time shortage). All of the participants regarded counselling as an important subject in pharmacy practice.
The pseudo customer method was successfully used in this study of German community pharmacies. It was shown that pseudo customer visits and performance feedback following the counselling process, were feasible in daily practice and well accepted by the participants. A training program, focussing on areas in most need of improvement, has been developed. The promising results have led to the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists in Germany adopting this method as part of a continuous quality improvement program in community pharmacies.
Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 03/2005; 30(1):45-57. · 1.57 Impact Factor
