Little data has been published regarding emergency medicine pharmacist (EMP) review of discharge prescriptions. An internal retrospective review of a limited sample size of emergency department (ED) discharge prescriptions demonstrated a 13.6% potential intervention rate by EMPs. With this information, it was postulated that EMPs could provide a valuable service via a process of targeted review of ED discharge prescriptions that would yield intervention rates higher than the internal audit. The aim of this project was therefore to develop a real-time notification system within the electronic health record (EHR) for targeted discharge prescription review, to establish an associated EMP workflow, and to evaluate the intervention rate achieved through targeted discharge prescription review.

This was a single-center, retrospective review of the implementation of a new pharmacist-driven clinical service over a 12 week period from February 19th, 2018 to May 14th, 2018. Criteria for prescription review were determined after an internal audit by the EMPs and included an assessment of established high-alert medications. Discharge prescriptions that met the inclusion criteria were filtered into a real-time work queue in the EHR for EMP review. When necessary, EMPs discussed recommendations with prescribers, or adjusted prescriptions according to institutional pharmacist privileges. Interventions were reviewed and categorized to assess rate of intervention and the types of medication-related problems (MRPs) identified.

EMPs reviewed 378 discharge prescriptions and a total of 158 prescriptions were identified as having at least one MRP. Of these, 70 prescriptions were intervened upon thereby resulting in an 18.5% intervention rate. The most common interventions included a change in the dose/frequency, duration/refills of the medication, and patient education. The highest number of interventions were made for anticoagulant and antiinfective agents.

Utilization of a real-time notification system for prospective ED discharge prescription review is feasible. Using targeted criteria for review, pharmacists intervened on 18.5% of prescriptions reviewed. Prospective discharge prescription review by EMPs using a real-time notification system within the electronic health record identified opportunities for the pharmacist to ensure safe and optimal prescribing.