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Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and assess the feasibility and cost impact of an intervention involving a practice pharmacist embedded in general practice to improve prescribing safety, deprescribe where appropriate and reduce costs. SETTING: Four-doctor suburban general practice. PARTICIPAN...

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Autores principales: Ó Ciardha, Darach, Blake, Anne-Marie, Creane, Dylan, Callaghan, Michael Ó, Darker, Catherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35623753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050261
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author Ó Ciardha, Darach
Blake, Anne-Marie
Creane, Dylan
Callaghan, Michael Ó
Darker, Catherine
author_facet Ó Ciardha, Darach
Blake, Anne-Marie
Creane, Dylan
Callaghan, Michael Ó
Darker, Catherine
author_sort Ó Ciardha, Darach
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and assess the feasibility and cost impact of an intervention involving a practice pharmacist embedded in general practice to improve prescribing safety, deprescribe where appropriate and reduce costs. SETTING: Four-doctor suburban general practice. PARTICIPANTS: Inclusion criteria: patients receiving 10+ repeat drugs per month. Exclusion criteria: deceased, <18 years of age, nursing home resident, no longer attending, late-stage life-limiting condition, unsuitable on clinical/capacity grounds. 137 patients were eligible. 78 were recruited as participants, all of whom completed the study. INTERVENTION: Pharmacist conducting holistic medication reviews in the study group over a 6-month period. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Anonymised medication changes, cost, biochemical monitoring and clinical measurements data were collected. Cost analysis of having a pharmacist as part of the general practice team was calculated. RESULTS: In total, 198 potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs), and 163 opportunities for deprescribing were identified; 127 PIPs (64.1%) were actioned; 104 deprescribing opportunities were actioned (63.8%). The pharmacist identified 101 instances in which further investigations were warranted prior to prescription issue, of which 80 were actioned (79.2%). It was calculated that monthly savings of €1252 were made as a result of deprescribing. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that the integration of pharmacists within general practice in Ireland is feasible and is an effective means of improving prescribing safety and implementing deprescribing through medication reviews. The combination of safety and cost concerns support taking a holistic approach to deprescribing with the patient. This study highlights the ease with which a pharmacist could integrate into the general practice setting in Ireland and points to how this could be sustainably funded.
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spelling pubmed-91501582022-06-16 Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting Ó Ciardha, Darach Blake, Anne-Marie Creane, Dylan Callaghan, Michael Ó Darker, Catherine BMJ Open General practice / Family practice OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and assess the feasibility and cost impact of an intervention involving a practice pharmacist embedded in general practice to improve prescribing safety, deprescribe where appropriate and reduce costs. SETTING: Four-doctor suburban general practice. PARTICIPANTS: Inclusion criteria: patients receiving 10+ repeat drugs per month. Exclusion criteria: deceased, <18 years of age, nursing home resident, no longer attending, late-stage life-limiting condition, unsuitable on clinical/capacity grounds. 137 patients were eligible. 78 were recruited as participants, all of whom completed the study. INTERVENTION: Pharmacist conducting holistic medication reviews in the study group over a 6-month period. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Anonymised medication changes, cost, biochemical monitoring and clinical measurements data were collected. Cost analysis of having a pharmacist as part of the general practice team was calculated. RESULTS: In total, 198 potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs), and 163 opportunities for deprescribing were identified; 127 PIPs (64.1%) were actioned; 104 deprescribing opportunities were actioned (63.8%). The pharmacist identified 101 instances in which further investigations were warranted prior to prescription issue, of which 80 were actioned (79.2%). It was calculated that monthly savings of €1252 were made as a result of deprescribing. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that the integration of pharmacists within general practice in Ireland is feasible and is an effective means of improving prescribing safety and implementing deprescribing through medication reviews. The combination of safety and cost concerns support taking a holistic approach to deprescribing with the patient. This study highlights the ease with which a pharmacist could integrate into the general practice setting in Ireland and points to how this could be sustainably funded. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-05-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9150158/ /pubmed/35623753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050261 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle General practice / Family practice
Ó Ciardha, Darach
Blake, Anne-Marie
Creane, Dylan
Callaghan, Michael Ó
Darker, Catherine
Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title_full Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title_fullStr Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title_full_unstemmed Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title_short Can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? A pilot study of an intervention in an Irish general practice setting
title_sort can a practice pharmacist improve prescribing safety and reduce costs in polypharmacy patients? a pilot study of an intervention in an irish general practice setting
topic General practice / Family practice
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35623753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050261
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