The Role of Community Pharmacists in the Detection of Clinically Relevant Drug-Related Problems in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Community pharmacists (CPs) have traditionally had limited access to patients’ estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) during the medication-dispensing process. The increasing access to shared electronic health records is making eGFR available, but the skills needed to detect and manage clinically relevant drug-related problems (DRPs) are poorly documented. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of CPs in the medication-dispensation process for elderly patients with renal impairment. A total of 70 CPs participated in this 6 month study. Community pharmacists asked all patients ≥65 years to bring their laboratory test values for the next medication-dispensing process. Drug-related problem detection rates were compared between CPs (prospective period) and expert pharmacists (retrospectively). The clinical relevance of each DRP was assessed by nephrologists and general practitioners using an appropriate tool. Community pharmacists recruited n = 442 patients with eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 and detected n = 99 DRPs, whereas expert pharmacists detected n = 184 DRPs. The most frequently detected DRPs were dosage problems and contraindications. According to assessment by clinicians, CPs and expert pharmacists identified 54.0% and 84.7% of clinically relevant DRPs, respectively. This study suggests a positive impact of the systematic availability of eGFR to CPs on the detection of several DRPs with clinical relevance.