Table 2.
Causes of drug-related problems identified among three stages of hospital stay.
| Category/subcategory of DRP causes according to PCNE v 8.02 classification | Number of DRPs divided by stage of DRPs identified, n (% of each stage) | Total, n = 316 n (% of total) |
p-value (test for difference among stages) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At admission, n = 77 | During the hospital stay, n = 91 | At discharge, n = 148 | |||
| Drug selection | |||||
| Inappropriate drug according to guidelines/formulary | 4 (5.2) | 8 (8.8) | 5 (3.4) | 17 (5.4) | 0.211b |
| Inappropriate drug (within guidelines but otherwise contraindication) | 9 (11.7) | 6 (6.6) | 4 (2.7) | 19 (6.0) | 0.026a |
| No indication | 2 (2.6) | 1 (1.1) | 3 (2.0) | 6 (1.9) | > 1.000b |
| Inappropriate combination of drugs or drugs and herbal medication | 0 | 1 (1.1) | 1 (0.7) | 2 (0.6) | > 1.000b |
| Inappropriate duplication of therapeutic group or active ingredient | 3 (3.9) | 16 (17.6) | 5 (3.4) | 24 (7.6) | < 0.001a |
| No drug treatment in spite of existing indication | 11 (14.3) | 8 (8.8) | 83 (56.1) | 102 (32.3) | < 0.001a |
| Too many drugs prescribed for indication | 0 | 8 (8.8) | 2 (1.4) | 10 (3.2) | 0.111b |
| Drug form | |||||
| Inappropriate dosage form | 2 (2.6) | 3 (3.3) | 4 (2.7) | 9 (2.9) | 1.000b |
| Dose selection | |||||
| Dose too low | 13 (16.9) | 5 (5.5) | 8 (5.4) | 26 (8.2) | 0.006a |
| Dose too high | 22 (28.6) | 28 (30.8) | 22 (14.9) | 72 (22.8) | 0.007a |
| Dosage regimen not frequent enough | 2 (2.6) | 0 | 0 | 2 (0.6) | 0.500b |
| Dose timing instructions wrong, unclear or missing | 8 (10.4) | 2 (2.2) | 6 (4.1) | 16 (5.1) | 0.609b |
| Treatment duration | |||||
| Duration of treatment too short | 0 | 0 | 2 (1.4) | 2 (0.6) | 0.219b |
| Duration of treatment too long | 0 | 4 (4.4) | 0 | 4 (1.3) | 0.126b |
| Others | |||||
| Inappropriate outcome monitoring | 0 | 1 (1.1) | 0 | 1 (0.3) | 1.000b |
| Drug order incorrect or incomplete | 1 (1.3) | 0 | 3 (2.0) | 4 (1.3) | 0.344b |
DRP drug-related problem, PCNE Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe.
ap-value of Chi-square for comparing three groups, statistical significance 0.05.
bp-value of Fisher exact test for comparing two groups: one group was DRPs occurred during admission (combination of at admission and during the hospital stay) and another was the DRPs at discharge, statistical significance 0.05.