PS-032 Antiretroviral drug prescribing errors in hospitalised patients

Background Errors in prescribing antiretroviral treatment (ART) are common during the hospitalisation of HIV patients. Interventions to prevent and correct errors improve the quality of health care. Purpose To describe the pharmaceutical interventions made during the hospitalisation period in HIV patients in the validation phase of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in a tertiary hospital. Materials and methods Between 1st September 2012 and 31st March 2013 a prospective study was conducted, in which we validated the ART prescribed with the Assisted Electronic Prescription (AEP) program during the first 24 h of the HIV patients’ hospitalisation. Patients receiving specialised pharmaceutical care in our hospital’s outpatient dispensing service and also patients from other centres were included. Medicines reconciliation of the HIV patients coming from our centre was performed using the ambulatory AEP program by the clinical pharmacist within 24 h of admission, while the ART of the remaining patients was self-reported. The pharmaceutical interventions were classified as: omission, incorrect dose, incorrect scheduling and drug interaction. Results Sixty-five patients were included, 49 (75%) receiving specialised pharmaceutical care in the outpatient dispensing service of our hospital and 16 (25%) proceeding from other hospitals. Pharmaceutical interventions were recorded in 22 patients. In 16 patients from our centre (32%) a pharmaceutical intervention was required: 4 cases of omission, 6 cases of incorrect dose, 3 cases of incorrect scheduling and 5 drug interactions. Six patients from the other centres (37.5%) needed a pharmaceutical intervention: 2 cases of incorrect dose and 4 drug interactions. The rate of physician acceptance of the interventions was 90%. Conclusions Prescription errors at the ART in HIV hospitalised patients were common during the first 24 h. The most common errors involved were incorrect dose. The pharmaceutical interventions had high rates of acceptance. No conflict of interest.