This was a 4-week, prospective, observational study that was conducted in the MICU of an academic medical centre. Lexi-Interact and Micromedex interaction databases were utilized daily to screen patients’ medication profiles for DDIs, and severity was assessed using each database’s severity rating scale. Of 240 patient medication profiles evaluated, 457 DDIs were identified. The rate of DDIs check details was 190.4 DDIs/100 patient days with 297 of these interactions being unique

drug pairs. About 25% (114/457) were considered major DDIs. The most commonly involved medications were antihypertensive medications (106/457) and anticoagulants/antiplatelet agents (80/457). DDIs occur frequently in the MICU. Severity and drug combinations related to DDIs in the MICU differ from DDIs published in other ICU settings. When developing a DDI alerting system, patient characteristics and location should be considered. “
“Product

standardisation GSK2118436 order involves promoting the prescribing of pre-selected products within a particular category across a healthcare region and is designed to improve patient safety by promoting continuity of medicine use across the primary/secondary care interface, in addition to cost containment without compromising clinical care (i.e. maintaining safety and efficacy). To examine the impact of product standardisation on the prescribing of compound alginate preparations within primary care in Northern Ireland. Data were obtained on alginate prescribing from the Northern Ireland Central Services Agency (Prescription Pricing Branch), covering a period of 43 months. Two standardisation promotion interventions were carried out at months 18 and 33. In addition to conventional statistical analyses, a simple interrupted time CHIR-99021 price series analysis approach, using graphical

interpretation, was used to facilitate interpretation of the data. There was a significant increase in the prescribed share of the preferred alginate product in each of the four health boards in Northern Ireland and a decrease in the cost per Defined Daily Dose for alginate liquid preparations overall. Compliance with the standardisation policy was, however, incomplete and was influenced to a marked degree by the activities of the pharmaceutical industry. The overall economic impact of the prescribing changes during the study was small (3.1%). The findings suggested that product standardisation significantly influenced the prescribing pattern for compound alginate liquid preparations within primary care across Northern Ireland. “
“Context  Electronic prescribing (EP) systems are advocated as a solution to minimise medication errors. Benefits in patient safety are often as a result of some clinical decision support (CDS) within the system.