Impact of clinical pharmacist interventions in a bone and joint infection orthoseptic surgery unit

To assess the impact of interventions of a clinical pharmacist in a unit of orthopedic surgery specialized in bone and joint infections.

Daily, in routine, a clinical pharmacist analyzed medication prescribed to inpatients via a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) (Phedra software). His attention was particularly focused on the impact of antibiotics on other medications. For this study, all of the pharmacist interventions (PI) have been retrospectively collected, then anonymized, and assessed over a two-month period.

Thirty-eight patients were hospitalized during the study period, with a mean age of 63 years old. Forty-five interventions were identified which represents a mean of 1.18 pharmaceutical interventions per patient. Most of them concerned lack of follow-up (24%) and drug-drug interactions (22%) and widely non-anti-infectious medication (35 interventions) with levothyroxine (10 interventions) as the most involved non-anti-infectious molecule. Among antibiotics, with respectively 9 and 8 interventions, rifampicin and fluoroquinolones (6 interventions for moxifloxacin) were the most concerned notably for drug-drug interactions with usual treatment.

In this observational retrospective study, 1.18 pharmacist interventions (PI) per patient were observed. Most of them are lack of follow-up and drug-drug interactions especially with usual treatment of patients. Moxifloxacin and rifampicin were the most antibiotics involved. Patients' characteristics (older, polypharmacy), long-term hospitalization and surgery are known to be predictive factors of medication errors and this study highlights the importance of the presence of clinical pharmacist in orthopedic surgery wards.