Impact of pharmacists’ interventions on physicians’ decision of a knowledge-based renal dosage adjustment system

Background Early interventions with clinical decision support system (CDSS) guidance have ensured appropriate drug dosing for patients with renal impairment. However, the low rates of physician compliance with CDSS alerts have been reported. Objective We investigated whether designated pharmacist interventions were associated with physician’ acceptance of the knowledge-based renal dosage adjustment system (K-RDS) for patients with reduced renal function. Setting A retrospective, single-center study was conducted using a healthcare information system at a tertiary teaching hospital. Methods This study compared physicians’ acceptance of the K-RDS with and without designated pharmacists. The severity of prescription errors and the impact of service provided by the pharmacist were evaluated using the validated method developed by Overhage and Lukes. From April to June 2017, we enrolled patients who were ≥ 20 years of age and admitted with an estimated glomerular filtration rate under 50 ml/min on medications that required dose adjustments. Main outcomes measure The number of dosing alerts of the K-RDS and physicians’ acceptance rates were compared between a control group guided by the central pharmacy only and a group with assigned designated pharmacists. The factors associated with the physicians’ acceptance rate were also analyzed using a multivariate logistic regression method. The impact of service provided by the pharmacist were considered as ‘highly significant’ (categories: 1–2). Severity of prescription errors were defined as ‘serious’ if they corresponded to categories 1–2 of the Overhage and Lukes scale for severity, and interventions were relevant if they corresponded to categories 1–3 in the impact of  service provided by the pharmacist scale. Results Among 1363 prescription interventions, 491 (36.0%) were performed by designated pharmacists. The K-RDS alert acceptance rate by the physicians was 54.4% in the designated pharmacist group and 47.0% in the control group (p = 0.0233). The statistically significant association was found in the designated pharmacists group in ‘highly significant’ service provided by the pharmacist (p < 0.001, OR 1.772; 95% CI 1.362–2.305) and ‘serious’ severity of prescription errors (p = 0.012, OR 1.657; 95% CI 1.116–2.460). The presence of designated pharmacists (OR 1.353, p = 0.0272), patient’s gender (OR 0.758, p = 0.0016), department specialty (OR 0.659, p < 0.0001), eGFR (OR 1.538 if < 10 ml/min; OR 1.519 if 10–40 ml/min, p < 0.0001), and medications (OR 6.058–43.992 depending on the medication category, p < 0.0001) were significant factors affecting physicians’ acceptance. Conclusion Pharmacists’ interventions effectively improved physicians’ acceptance of the K-RDS alerts.