Increasing the Number of Adverse Drug Reactions Reporting: the Role of Clinical Pharmacy Residents

Detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in hospitals provides an important measure of the burden of drug related morbidity on the healthcare system. Spontaneous reporting of ADRs is scare and several obstacles to such reporting have been identified formerly. This study aimed to determine the role of clinical pharmacy residents in ADR reporting within a hospital setting.Clinical pharmacy residents were trained to report all suspected ADRs through ADRreporting yellow cards. The incidence, pattern, seriousness, and preventability of the reported ADRs were analyzed. During the period of 12 months, for 8559 patients, 202 ADR reports were received. The most frequently reported reactions were due to anti-infective agents (38.38%). Rifampin accounted for the highest number of the reported ADRs among anti-infective agents. The gastro-intestinal system was the most frequently affected system (21.56%) of all reactions. Fifty four of the ADRs were reported as serious reactions. Eighteen of the ADRs were classified as preventable. Clinical pharmacy residents involvement in the ADR reporting program could improve the ADR reporting system

Increasing the Number of Adverse Drug Reactions Reporting: the Role of Clinical Pharmacy Residents

Abstract Detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in hospitals provides an important measure of the burden of drug related morbidity on the healthcare system. Spontaneous reporting of ADRs is scare and several obstacles to such reporting have been identified formerly. This study aimed to determine the role of clinical pharmacy residents in ADR reporting within a hospital setting.Clinical pharmacy residents were trained to report all suspected ADRs through ADRreporting yellow cards. The incidence, pattern, seriousness, and preventability of the reported ADRs were analyzed. During the period of 12 months, for 8559 patients, 202 ADR reports were received. The most frequently reported reactions were due to anti-infective agents (38.38%). Rifampin accounted for the highest number of the reported ADRs among anti-infective agents. The gastro-intestinal system was the most frequently affected system (21.56%) of all reactions. Fifty four of the ADRs were reported as serious reactions. Eighteen of the ADRs were classified as preventable. Clinical pharmacy residents involvement in the ADR reporting program could improve the ADR reporting system

Microbial contamination of single-and multiple-dose vials after opening in a pulmonary teaching hospital

OBJECTIVES: Intravenous therapy is a complex procedure usually requiring the preparation of the medication in the clinical area before administration to the patient. Breaches in aseptic technique may result in microbial contaminations of vials which is a potential cause of different avoidable infections. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and pattern of microbial contamination of single- and multiple-dose vials in the largest pulmonary teaching hospital in Iran. METHODS: In a period of 2 months, opened single- and multiple-dose vials from different wards were sampled by a pharmacist. The name of the medication, ward, labeling of the vials, the date of opening, and storing temperature were recorded for each vial. Remained contents of each vial were cultured using appropriate bacterial and fungal growth media. RESULTS: Microbial contamination was identified in 11 of 205 (5.36%) of vials. The highest contamination rate was 14.28% for vials used in interventional bronchoscopy unit. The most frequent contaminated medication was insulin. Gram-positive bacteria (81.82%) were more significantly involved than gram-negative ones (9.09%) and fungi (9.09%), with the highest frequency for Staphylococcus epidermidis . CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that repeated use of vials especially if basic sterility measures are disobeyed can cause microbial contamination of administered products to the patients. Infection preventionists are responsible to train health care workers regarding aseptic techniques and apply guidelines for aseptic handling of intravenous solutions