Medication errors are more prevalent in settings with acutely ill patients and heavy workloads, such as in an emergency department (ED). A pragmatic, controlled study compared partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC) (pharmacist-documented best-possible medication history [BPMH] followed by clinical discussion between a pharmacist and medical officer to co-develop a treatment plan and chart medications) with early BPMH (pharmacist-documented BPMH followed by medical officer-led traditional medication charting) and usual care (traditional medication charting approach without a pharmacist-collected BPMH in ED). Medication discrepancies were undocumented differences between medication charts and medication reconciliation. An expert panel assessed the discrepancies’ clinical significance, with ‘unintentional’ discrepancies deemed ‘errors’. Fewer patients in the PPMC group had at least one error (3.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1% to 5.8%) than in the early BPMH (49.4%; 95% CI: 42.5% to 56.3%) and usual care group (61.4%; 95% CI: 56.3% to 66.7%). The number of patients who need to be treated with PPMC to prevent at least one high/extreme error was 4.6 (95% CI: 3.4 to 6.9) and 4.0 (95% CI: 3.1 to 5.3) compared to the early BPMH and usual care group, respectively. PPMC within ED, incorporating interdisciplinary discussion, reduced clinically significant errors compared to early BPMH or usual care.

Medicine shortages are increasingly common and disruptive to the optimal delivery of health care. This article provides a practical overview of the steps that prescribers and pharmacists can take to effectively manage a medicine shortage.

Introduction: Partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC), a process redesign hypothesised to improve medication safety and interdisciplinary collaboration, was trialed in a tertiary hospital’s emergency department (ED).Objective: To evaluate the health-related impact and economic benefit of PPMC.Methods: A pragmatic, controlled study compared PPMC to usual care in the ED. PPMC included a pharmacist-documented best-possible medication history (BPMH), followed by a clinical conversation between a pharmacist and a medical officer to jointly develop a treatment plan and chart medications. Usual care included medical officer-led traditional medication charting in the ED, without a pharmacist-obtained BPMH or clinical conversation. Outcome measures, assessed after propensity score matching, were length of hospital or ED stay, relative stay index (RSI), in-hospital mortality, 30-day hospital readmissions or ED revisits, and cost.Results: A total of 309 matched pairs were analysed. The median RSI was reduced by 15.4% with PPMC (p = 0.029). There were no significant differences between the groups in the median length of ED stay (8 vs. 10 h, p = 0.52), in-hospital mortality (1.3% vs. 1.3%, p > 0.99), 30-day readmission rates (21% vs. 17%; p = 0.35) and 30-day ED revisit rates (21% vs. 19%; p = 0.68). The hospital spent approximately $138.4 for the cost of PPMC care per patient to avert at least one medication error bearing high/extreme risk. PPMC saved approximately $1269 on the average cost of each admission.Conclusion: Implementing the ED-based PPMC model was associated with a significantly reduced RSI and admission costs, but did not affect clinical outcomes, noting that there was an additional focus on medication reconciliation in the usual care group relative to current practice at our study site.

In order to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and promote better medication management, a partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC) model was piloted in the emergency department (ED) of an Australian referral hospital. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of PPMC on the timeliness of time-critical medicines (TCMs), completeness of medication orders, and assessment of venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk. This concurrent controlled retrospective pragmatic trial involved individuals aged 18 years and older presenting to the ED from 1 June 2020 to 17 May 2021. The study compared the PPMC approach (PPMC group) with traditional medical officer-led medication charting approaches in the ED, either an early best-possible medication history (BPMH) group or the usual care group. In the PPMC group, a BPMH was documented promptly soon after arrival in the ED, subsequent to which a collaborative discussion, co-planning, and co-charting of medications were undertaken by both a PPMC-credentialled pharmacist and a medical officer. In the early BPMH group, the BPMH was initially obtained in the ED before proceeding with the traditional approach of medication charting. Conversely, in the usual care group, the BPMH was obtained in the inpatient ward subsequent to the traditional approach of medication charting. Three outcome measures were assessed –the duration from ED presentation to the TCM’s first dose administration (e.g., anti-Parkinson’s drugs, hypoglycaemics and anti-coagulants), the completeness of medication orders, and the conduct of VTE risk assessments. The analysis included 321 TCMs, with 107 per group, and 1048 patients, with 230, 230, and 588 in the PPMC, early BPMH, and usual care groups, respectively. In the PPMC group, the median time from ED presentation to the TCM’s first dose administration was 8.8 h (interquartile range: 6.3 to 16.3), compared to 17.5 h (interquartile range: 7.8 to 22.9) in the early BPMH group and 15.1 h (interquartile range: 8.2 to 21.1) in the usual care group (p < 0.001). Additionally, PPMC was associated with a higher proportion of patients having complete medication orders and receiving VTE risk assessments in the ED (both p < 0.001). The implementation of the PPMC model not only expedited the administration of TCMs but also improved the completeness of medication orders and the conduct of VTE risk assessments in the ED.