Pharmacists in the Emergency Department
The Pharmacist in the Emergency department (PharmED) is a large collaboration project between three emergency departments (EDs) in Northern Norway. In addition to pharmacists working in the EDs, it employs two PhD students and a Postdoctoral fellow.
Background The “Emergency Department (ED) Pharmacist” is an integrated part of the ED interdisciplinary team in many countries, which have proved to improve medication safety and reduce costs related to hospitalisations. In Norway, few EDs are equipped with an ED pharmacist, and research has not been performed in Norway describing the benefit of this.
Aim The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of implementing the ED pharmacist in the interdisciplinary ED team.
Setting This is a multisenter study where the intervention will be implemented in three EDs in Northern Norway; Tromsø, Bodø and Harstad.
Endpoints The primary endpoint is “Time in hospital during 30 days after admission to the ED”, which is a composite endpoint combining i) time in ED during index stay, ii) time in hospital during index stay if hospitalized and iii) time in ED or hospital if rehospitalized during 30 days after index admission. Secondary endpoints include time in EDs, time in first hospitalisation, time to rehospitalisation, 3 month rehospitalisation rates, mortality rates, intervention fidelity, intervention description, acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations, clinical relevance and appropriateness of pharmacist recommendations, medication changes during admission and health economy of the intervention.
Publications out
6: Zahl-Holmstad B, Garcia BH, Johnsgård T, Ofstad EH, Lehnbom EC, Svendsen K, Risør T, Holis RV, Elenjord R. Patient perceptions and experiences with medication-related activities in the emergency department: a qualitative study. BMJ Open Qual. 2023 May;12(2):e002239. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2022-002239. PMID: 37217242; PMCID: PMC10230996.
5: Zahl-Holmstad B, Garcia BH, Svendsen K, Johnsgård T, Holis RV, Ofstad EH, Risør T, Lehnbom EC, Wisløff T, Chan M, Elenjord R. Completeness of medication information in admission notes from emergency departments. BMC Health Serv Res. 2023 Dec 16;23(1):1425. doi: 10.1186/s12913-023-10371-4. PMID: 38104071; PMCID: PMC10724918.
4: Johnsgård T, Elenjord R, Lehnbom EC, Risør T, Zahl-Holmstad B, Vesela Holis R, Hugaas Ofstad E, Garcia BH. Emergency department physicians' experiences and perceptions with medication-related work tasks and the potential role of clinical pharmacists. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2023 Dec;18(1):2226941. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2023.2226941. PMID: 37343666; PMCID: PMC10286684.
3: Johnsgård T, Elenjord R, Holis RV, Waaseth M, Zahl-Holmstad B, Fagerli M, Svendsen K, Lehnbom EC, Ofstad EH, Risør T, Garcia BH. How much time do emergency department physicians spend on medication-related tasks? A time- and-motion study. BMC Emerg Med. 2024 Apr 9;24(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s12873-024-00974-3. PMID: 38594615; PMCID: PMC11003058.
2: Holis RV, Elenjord R, Lehnbom EC, Andersen S, Fagerli M, Johnsgård T, Zahl-Holmstad B, Svendsen K, Waaseth M, Skjold F, Garcia BH. How Do Pharmacists Distribute Their Work Time during a Clinical Intervention Trial?-A Time and Motion Study. Pharmacy (Basel). 2024 Jul 9;12(4):106. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy12040106. PMID: 39051390; PMCID: PMC11270314.
1: Vesela R, Elenjord R, Lehnbom EC, Ofstad EH, Johnsgård T, Zahl-Holmstad B, Risør T, Wisløff T, Røslie L, Filseth OM, Valle PC, Svendsen K, Frøyshov HM, Garcia BH. Integrating the clinical pharmacist into the emergency department interdisciplinary team: a study protocol for a multicentre trial applying a non-randomised stepped-wedge study design. BMJ Open. 2021 Nov 25;11(11):e049645. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049645. PMID: 34824109; PMCID: PMC8627400.
Members:
Financial/grant information:
The project is financed by Helse Nord