Pharmacists’ Order Review and Clinical Intervention in Chemotherapy

Hyangmin Park°, Joowon Chung, Seonggil Ryu, Jaeyeun Kim, Yeongcheon Song

Department of Pharmacy, Asan Medical Center

 This study aimed to analyze the errors in the chemotherapy prescription by order review and to analyze the current status of the prescription intervention, discover the importance of the prescription order review by pharmacists.

 From July 1st, 2008 to June 30st, 2009, in oncology department of Asan Medical Center, the number of the in-patient chemotherapy presciption was total 10,817, and among them, 870 clinical pharmacy intervention(8.04%)were made for one year.

 Among the interventions, 431 cases(49.6%) was intervened due to drug dosage change and the length of therapy, 151 cases(17.4%) due to the change of drug and regimen selection, 53 casea(6.1%) due to drug cost issue and insurance, 43 cases(4.9%) due to the administration method and stability and 192 cases (22.1%) due to with other issues.

 This study showed that pharmacists' interventions for chemotherapy prescription will be reduced medication error. Furthermore, it has been shown that participation and interventions by clinical pharmacists at the stage of ordering and prescribing may more optimize individual drug therapy.