The analysis was conducted on pharmacists\' interventions performed between January 1 and December 31, 2015 in a French teaching hospital. Similar pharmacists\' interventions were grouped in one item and they were analysed according to 11 drug categories. The clinical significance of pharmacists\' interventions was considered independently by a pharmacist and a rheumatologist using a validated French scale that categorises drug-related problems from minor to catastrophic. The agreement between the two professionals was analysed using the weighted kappa coefficient.
Of 1313 prescriptions reviewed, 461 pharmacists\' interventions (171 items) were formulated for drug-related problems with an acceptance rate of 67.2%. Of the 418 interventions selected for clinical significance analysis, 235 interventions (56.2%) for the physician and 400 interventions (95.7%) for the pharmacist were at least significant. The two professionals evaluated equally the clinical relevance of 90 items (50.6%). The categories with the most similarities were the analgesics/anti-inflammatory drugs (78.1%), the antidiabetics (75.0%) and the anticoagulants (71.4%). The agreement was estimated by a weighted kappa coefficient of 0.29.
This work highlights the positive clinical relevance of pharmacists\' interventions in rheumatology and the importance of medico-pharmaceutical collaboration to prevent medication errors.