TY - JOUR
T1 - Team-based approach to addressing simvastatin safety concerns
AU - Robinson, McKay
AU - Gunning, Karen
AU - Pippitt, Karly
AU - McAdam-Marx, Carrie
AU - Jennings, Brandon T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Disclosure: Dr. McAdam-Marx received funding from the National Cancer Institute (award no. KM1CA156723. The other authors declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests in any product or service mentioned in this article, including grants, employment, gifts, stock holdings, or honoraria.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Objective : To describe acceptance of systematic and organized pharmacist interventions to address simvastatin safety concerns. Setting: University of Utah Redwood Health Center and Pharmacy, June 2011 to February 2012. Practice description: Redwood Health Center is an outpatient multispecialty clinic associated with University of Utah Health Care with approximately 85,000 annual visits between primary care and specialty practices. In addition to filling approximately 175,000 prescriptions per year, pharmacists provide disease management and education under collaborative practice agreements. Practice innovation: All patients identified as being treated outside the revised simvastatin labeling were included (n = 158). After pharmacist review, recommendations were made to providers via the electronic medical record to promote adherence with the June 2011 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety guidelines. In addition to recommendations regarding the FDA guidelines (n = 76), additional recommendations were made to optimize treatment based on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal or laboratory evaluation (n = 25). Main outcome measures: Acceptance rate of recommendations and resources needed to provide pharmacist interventions. Results: Recommendations were accepted 92% of the time without modification and 7% of the time with modification. Total pharmacist time to conduct the interventions was 21.5 hours, and 3.9 hours of technician time were spent contacting patients. Conclusion: Targeted pharmacist interventions were effective in promoting adherence with this complex medication safety alert. A standardized, comprehensive approach to patient assessment, including use of evidence to support pharmacist recommendations, resulted in a high level of acceptance by prescribers.
AB - Objective : To describe acceptance of systematic and organized pharmacist interventions to address simvastatin safety concerns. Setting: University of Utah Redwood Health Center and Pharmacy, June 2011 to February 2012. Practice description: Redwood Health Center is an outpatient multispecialty clinic associated with University of Utah Health Care with approximately 85,000 annual visits between primary care and specialty practices. In addition to filling approximately 175,000 prescriptions per year, pharmacists provide disease management and education under collaborative practice agreements. Practice innovation: All patients identified as being treated outside the revised simvastatin labeling were included (n = 158). After pharmacist review, recommendations were made to providers via the electronic medical record to promote adherence with the June 2011 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety guidelines. In addition to recommendations regarding the FDA guidelines (n = 76), additional recommendations were made to optimize treatment based on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal or laboratory evaluation (n = 25). Main outcome measures: Acceptance rate of recommendations and resources needed to provide pharmacist interventions. Results: Recommendations were accepted 92% of the time without modification and 7% of the time with modification. Total pharmacist time to conduct the interventions was 21.5 hours, and 3.9 hours of technician time were spent contacting patients. Conclusion: Targeted pharmacist interventions were effective in promoting adherence with this complex medication safety alert. A standardized, comprehensive approach to patient assessment, including use of evidence to support pharmacist recommendations, resulted in a high level of acceptance by prescribers.
KW - Clinical pharmacist teams
KW - Drug warnings
KW - Medication safety
KW - Patient safety
KW - Simvastatin
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U2 - 10.1331/JAPhA.2013.13019
DO - 10.1331/JAPhA.2013.13019
M3 - Article
C2 - 24030132
AN - SCOPUS:84890502888
SN - 1544-3191
VL - 53
SP - 539
EP - 544
JO - Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. American Pharmaceutical Association
JF - Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. American Pharmaceutical Association
IS - 5
ER -