Introduction of an Emergency Medicine Pharmacist in the Emergency Department: Potential for Improved Patient Care

Background: Growing evidence demonstrates that emergency medicine pharmacists (EMPs) can positively improve patient care in the emergency department (ED).In Singapore, ED pharmacy is still generally limited to traditional roles, and EMPs are rarely included as part of the ED clinical team.We sought to investigate the impact of introducing an EMP into an ED. Methods:From November 2019, we piloted a new, collaborative multidisciplinary model of care by introducing an EMP to provide clinical pharmacy services in the ED of our institution.Results: The EMP's roles and practices, as described in this report, included clinical and traditional non-clinical as well as administrative activities to support the multidisciplinary teams in the ED.On average, the EMP was involved in 1.2 documented pharmacist activities (involving medication-related enquiries or interventions) per hour spent in the ED. Conclusion:Although our initial experience with introducing an EMP into our ED was mostly positive with tangible benefits in optimizing medication use and improving medication safety for ED patients, we also described the challenges that we faced in developing the service.Finally, the necessity of an EMP should be further examined, adapted to the local settings, and evaluated with respect to incorporation of this service into our local healthcare system by conducting further studies.