Characteristics of drug-related problems and pharmacist’s interventions in hospitalized patients in Thailand: a prospective observational study

Drug-related problems (DRPs) are a major health concern. A better understanding of the characteristics of DRPs throughout the hospital stay may help to tailor pharmaceutical care services (PCS). This study aims to describe the characteristics of DRPs and to compare DRP pattern in different stages of hospital stay. DRPs were identified by clinical pharmacists as part of their routine services. Pharmacist assessed causality, severity and preventability of DRP. A total of 316 preventable DRPs occurred in 257 patients with the median of 1 (rang 1-3) DRPs per patient. 46.8% of DRPs occurred at discharge than at other stages. The most frequent cause of DRP was no drug treatment in spite of existing indication, accounting for 32.3% of all DRPs. No drug treatment with existing indication was detected frequently at discharge (56.1%) compared with other stages (p-value < 0.001). The common intervention to physician was starting a drug (34.0%) and the acceptance rate was 95.8%. DRPs in hospitalized patients occur at any stage of the hospital stay. Systematic identification of DRP characteristics enables pharmacists to tailor optimal type of PCS required and hence improve patient safety.