Pediatric Pharmacy Services in Canadian Adult Hospitals: An Inventory and Prioritization of Services

The rate of potential adverse drug events is reported to be 3 times higher among pediatric inpatients than among their adult counterparts. Various methods have been suggested to reduce medication errors in pediatric patients. One of the most influential of these strategies is inclusion of a clinical pharmacist on the multidisciplinary care team. However, there is currently no literature describing the inventory of pharmacy services provided to pediatric patients in Canadian adult hospitals.

The primary objective of this study was to describe pediatric and neonatal pharmacy services provided in adult hospitals in Canada. The secondary objective was to determine whether the services provided correspond to services that pharmacists working in Canadian pediatric hospitals identified as important for adult hospitals that provide pediatric services.

Two web-based surveys were created, focusing on 35 pharmacy services. The first survey was intended for adult hospitals, and the second for pediatric hospitals. The surveys were distributed by e-mail and were completed in January and February 2018.

A total of 55 and 43 valid responses were received from respondents in adult hospitals and pediatric hospitals, respectively. An inventory of pharmacy services provided by adult hospitals to their pediatric and neonatal patients was obtained. Of the adult hospitals that responded, 61% (33/54) had pharmacists assigned to pediatric or neonatal units. The frequency with which most pharmacy services were provided was comparable to the importance identified by pharmacists working in pediatric hospitals. However, for the provision of education during admission and at discharge and for the provision of medication reconciliation at discharge, frequency and importance were not comparable.

Adult hospitals with a pharmacist assigned to an inpatient pediatric or neonatal clinical area met most expectations of pharmacists working in pediatric hospitals in terms of pharmacy services provided. However, some services require optimization for this patient population.