Evaluation of a clinical pharmacist intervention on clinical and drug-related problems among coronary heart disease inpatients: A pre-experimental prospective study at a general hospital in Indonesia

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the role of a clinical pharmacist intervention in decreasing subsequent clinical and drug-related problems (DRPs) among coronary heart disease (CHD) inpatients with at least one previous DRP. Methods: This pre-experimental study with a pre-post design was carried out from January to April 2017 among inpatients with at least one previous DRP at a general hospital in Tangerang District, Banten, Indonesia. Clinical and DRPs were documented prospectively by a clinical pharmacist, with DRPs classified using Version 6.2 of the DRP classification scheme of the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe Foundation. The intervention consisted of a discussion of identified DRPs with physicians, patients, pharmaceutical logistics clerks, nurses and nutritionists. Following this, any subsequent clinical and DRPs were re-identified and further interventions were conducted as necessary. Results: A total of 75 inpatients were included in the study. Pre-intervention, there were 443 DRPs and 202 clinical problems. The most frequent DRPs were adverse drug reactions (52.6%), followed by drug effects (41.8%). Most DRPs were of moderate severity and would have resulted in moderate consequences had the pharmacist not intervened. The interventions resulted in a significant reduction in the number of DRPs, type of DRPs and number of clinical problems (P <0.05 each). Patients with complications were 26.047 times more likely to have no reduction or an increased number of clinical problems compared to patients without complications (P <0.05). Conclusion: Clinical pharmacist interventions were found to reduce subsequent DRPs and clinical problems among CHD patients with at least one previous DRP.