How Often Are Pharmacist Recommendations Followed by Emergency Physicians in Emergency Departments?

Clinical pharmacy has played a role in Emergency Departments (ED). The presence of pharmacists have been shown to reduce medication errors and improve the medication history taken at admission. In Denmark a recent study revealed that clinical pharmacists identified medication problems in 25% of all admission to the ED, of which 47 % were considered to be serious.

However, the pharmacist recommendations are of little value if they are not acknowledged or followed by the physicians.

The aim of the present study was to analyze how often and under which circumstances the physicians made use of pharmaceutical recommendations in an ED with a mixed patient population with special attention to those recommendations, which were of significant or disastrous importance.

Inclusion Criteria:

- all acute admissions to emergency department who were treated with one or more drugs

Exclusion Criteria:

- children less than 15 years.