Friday, June 01, 2007

Pharmacists can have impact after surgery, say researchers

From News @UofT:
A new study by researchers from the Toronto General Hospital (TGH), University Health Network (UHN) and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy has shown that including pharmacists as part of multidisciplinary teams in surgical pre-admission clinics can result in a 50 per cent decrease in medication discrepancies for patients after surgery.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine May 28, is the first randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a pharmacist intervention in a pre-admission clinic. Previous studies have shown that from the moment a patient is admitted to hospital to when they are discharged, there are several vulnerable moments for medication information discrepancies, which can escalate into medication errors and adverse drug events. ...more

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