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Should Pharmacists Lead Medication Reconciliation in Critical Care? A One-Stem Interventional Study in an Egyptian Intensive Care Unit

Objectives The main objective was to compare physician-obtained medication histories to the practice of medication reconciliation undertaken by a pharmacist in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods A one-stem interventional study involving 500 adults 18 years and older admitted to the ICU (50 beds) of an Egyptian Joint Commission International–accredited reference hospital was conducted. The primary outcome measure was the proportion of ICU patients with missing medications in the cohorts of physician versus pharmacist-led medication reconciliation. The secondary outcome measure was the percentage of patients who had at least one clinical condition or adverse event (AE) that was left untreated during hospitalization of the 2 arms of patients after reconciliation. Results A total of 500 patients received reconciliation. Medication discrepancies in the cohort of physician-led reconciliation were greater than that of the pharmacist (26.1% versus 2.6%, P = 0.001). The most common discrepancy was indication with no medication, which was found to be greater in the physician-led cohort of patients than that of the pharmacist cohort (25.2% versus 2.6%, P = 0.001). Untreated AEs in the former cohort were present in 9.1% of cases versus 1.5% in the pharmacist-led reconciliation cohort (P = 0.001). Conclusions The present study revealed that pharmacist-led medication reconciliation in ICU has dramatically decreased medication discrepancies and AEs in adults with acute ICU admissions.