Impact of pharmaceutical care on pain and agitation in a medical intensive care unit in Thailand

Background Currently, a lack of pharmaceutical care exists concerning pain and agitation in medical intensive care units (MICU) in Thailand. Pharmaceutical care focusing on analgesics/sedatives would improve clinical outcomes. Objective To investigate the impact of pharmaceutical care of pain and agitation on ICU length of stay (LOS), hospital LOS, ventilator days and mortality. Setting The MICU of a university hospital. Method A before/after study was conducted on mechanically ventilated patients receiving analgesics/sedatives. Medical chart reviews and data collection were conducted in the retrospective group (no pharmacists involved). In the prospective group, pharmacists involved with the critical care team helped select analgesics/sedatives for individual patients. Main outcome measure ICU LOS Results In total, 90 and 66 patients were enrolled in retrospective and prospective groups, respectively. The median duration of ICU LOS was reduced from 10.00 (2.00–72.00) in the retrospective group to 6.50 days (2.00–30.00) in the prospective group (p = 0.002). The median hospital stay was reduced from 30.50 days (2.00–119.00) in the retrospective group to 17.50 days (2.00–110.00) in the prospective group (p < 0.001). Also, the median ventilator days was reduced from 14.00 days (2.00–90.00) to 8.50 days (1.00–45.00), p = 0.008. Mortality was 53.03% in the prospective group and 46.67% in the retrospective group (p = 0.432). Conclusion Pharmacist participation in a critical care team resulted in a significant reduction in the duration of ICU LOS, hospital LOS and ventilator days, but not mortality.