Clinical pharmacists protect children from medication errors

Clinical pharmacy services are believed to reduce medication errors. Children are vulnerable to medication errors due to various factors. In a recent meta analysis, researchers undertook a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the impact of clinical pharmacist interventions on medication error rates for hospitalized pediatric patients. 19 studies were systematically reviewed and 6 studies (29,291 patients) were included in the meta-analysis. Pharmacist interventions involved delivering educational sessions, reviewing prescriptions, attending rounds and implementing a unit-based clinical pharmacist service. The most common basis for pharmacist interventions was inappropriate dosing. Pharmacist involvement was associated with significant reductions in the overall rate of medication errors occurrence (OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.49). More evidence for the effectiveness of clinical pharmacy services – this time for younger patients. See the details of the study here