Ms Amanda Yen Li Lim2, Ms Courtney Perkins2, Ms Danila Bakoos2, Ms Nadin Joud2, Mr Ali Seena Rahimi2, Mr Vinod Thomas1, Ms Karen Macolino1, Mr Sean Turner1, Mr Daniel Guidone1, Mr Vaughn Eaton1,3, Mr Michael Bakker1, Ms Alice Wisdom1, Ms Melissa Teo1, Ms Sally Marotti1,3,4, Dr Huah Shin Ng1,3
1SA Pharmacy, Adelaide, Australia, 2Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 3Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, 4University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Biography:
Dr. Huah Shin Ng is a Senior Pharmacist-Research at SA Pharmacy, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network. She is also a Cancer Council SA Early-Career Fellow at Flinders University with her research focuses on cancer survivorship and cancer pharmacoepidemiology.
Abstract:
Purpose:
To describe the types of enquiries received by on-call hospital pharmacists.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of data entered by on-call pharmacists between January/2019 and December/2023 from across seven Local Health Networks in South Australia. Medicine-related enquiries were classified by type according to the Anatomical Therapeutical Chemical (ATC) classification system and ‘APINCH’ (Antimicrobials, Psychotropics, Potassium and electrolytes, Insulin, Narcotics and other sedatives, Chemotherapeutic agents, Heparin and anticoagulants) acronym.
Results:
A total of 9069 phone enquiries were received over the 5 years period. The largest number of calls related to medicine supply (62%) and medicines information (20%). Twelve percent of enquiries required a pharmacist to attend the hospital in person. Phone enquiries were most commonly received on Saturday (20%) and Sunday (16%). The time period with the highest call numbers was 6pm-8pm (29%), followed by 8pm-10pm (23%) and 9am-5pm (predominantly weekends; 15%). Nearly one-third of the medicine enquiries were for drugs that act on the nervous system classified using ATC classification system, with clozapine being involved with the highest frequency (n=534; 6%). Over half of the medicine-related enquiries (n=5046) were considered high-risk drugs using the ‘APINCH’ acronym. The most common ‘APINCH’ subtype was antimicrobials (n=2213/5046; 44%), followed by narcotics (24%) and psychotropics (16%).
Discussion:
The provision of on-call services involved a range of high-risk classification medicines that warranted timely supply and clinical advice from pharmacists to ensure patient safety. The findings provide evidence to inform planning for future health services where pharmacists are embedded in a 24-hour model of clinical care.