Penicillin de-labelling in vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: comparison of approaches, outcomes and future directions.

BACKGROUND: Inaccurate penicillin allergy labels lead to inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions and harmful patient consequences. System-wide efforts are needed to remove incorrect penicillin allergy labels, but more health services research is required on how to best deliver these services. METHODS: Data was extracted from five hospitals in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from October 2018-May 2022. The primary outcomes of this study were to outline de-labelling protocol designs, identify the roles of various healthcare professionals in de-labelling protocols and identify rates of de-labelling penicillin allergies and associated adverse events at various institutions. Our secondary outcome was to describe de-labelling rates for special populations, including pediatric, obstetric and immunocompromised subpopulations. To achieve these outcomes, participating institutions provided their de-labelling protocol designs and data on program participants. Protocols were then compared to find common themes and differences. Furthermore, adverse events were reviewed and percentages of patients de-labelled at each institution and in total were calculated. RESULTS: Protocols demonstrated a high level of variability, including different methods of participant identification, risk-stratification and roles of providers. All protocols used oral and direct oral challenges, heavily involved pharmacists and had physician oversight. Despite the differences, of the 711 patients enrolled in all programs, 697 (98.0%) were de-labelled. There were 9 adverse events (1.3%) with oral challenges with mainly minor symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrates that de-labelling programs effectively and safely remove penicillin allergy labels, including pediatric, obstetric and immunocompromised patients. Consistent with current literature, most patients with a penicillin allergy label are not allergic. De-labelling programs could benefit from increasing clinician engagement by increasing accessibility of resources to providers, including guidance for de-labelling of special populations.

Drug use evaluation of moxifloxacin (avelox) using a hand-held electronic device at a canadian teaching hospital.

BACKGROUND: The use of moxifloxacin (Avelox) has increased at Vancouver General Hospital since its introduction onto the formulary in 2002. It is unclear, however, whether the use of the drug is optimal according to its indication. Hand-held electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), are novel tools that can be used during routine patient care to collect data for drug use evaluation (DUE) reviews. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that moxifloxacin was over-utilized and that opportunities existed to optimize its use. This study was designed to characterize moxifloxacin use in concordance with evidence-based assessment criteria. The feasibility of using a PDA device as a data-collection tool was also evaluated. DESIGN: An observational DUE was conducted over a 4-week period (from February 17 to March 16, 2007) at Vancouver General Hospital, a 955-bed tertiary care hospital. Inpatients who received at least one dose of moxifloxacin were enrolled. Evidence-based assessment criteria were developed to evaluate the appropriateness of moxifloxacin use, and a PDA database was developed for data collection. The primary endpoint was the proportion of moxifloxacin use for approved first-line indications. RESULTS: A total of 132 patients were included. Eighty-nine patients (67%) received moxifloxacin for first-line indications, including community-acquired pneumonia (57%) and acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis (10%). Forty-three patients (33%) had alternative indications, primarily hospital-acquired pneumonia (25%). In 129 evaluable patients, approximately half (51%) of the clinical outcomes were successful; 37% were indeterminate; and 12% were failures. General medicine and respiratory service clinicians prescribed moxifloxacin more appropriately compared with surgical service personnel. Most of the pharmacists supported the use of PDAs as DUE data-collection tools. CONCLUSION: Overall, moxifloxacin utilization at Vancouver General Hospital was appropriate according to evidence-based assessment criteria. Additional opportunities to improve its use exist through health care staff education. PDAs are ideal data-collection tools for DUEs, as they can be conveniently used during routine patient care.

Evaluation of a symptom-triggered protocol approach to the management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in older adults.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether implementation of symptom-triggered administration of a benzodiazepine protocol reduces the severity (total cumulative dose), duration, and complications of alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS). DESIGN: Retrospective health record review. SETTING: Tertiary care center in Vancouver, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 70 and older admitted to the Acute Care for Elders and Acute Medicine Unit wards with diagnostic codes for AWS from 2008 to 2012. MEASUREMENTS: Median duration and cumulative dose of benzodiazepine treatment, number of severe AWS complications, severe benzodiazepine-associated adverse effects, and need for adjunct therapy. RESULTS: Thirty-three participants in the preprotocol group and 30 in the protocol-implemented group met the inclusion criteria. Median duration of benzodiazepine treatment decreased from 96 hours (interquartile range (IQR) 72-120 hours) in the preprotocol period to 48 hours (IQR 0-108 hours; P=.04), and median cumulative benzodiazepine dose administered decreased from 9 mg (IQR 5-19.8 mg) to 3 mg (IQR 0-10 mg; P=.001). Statistically significantly lower incidence of severe AWS complications (P=.007) and adjunct therapy use (P=.02) was seen in the protocol-implemented group. CONCLUSION: A symptom-triggered protocol for dosing of benzodiazepine therapy in the management of AWS in individuals aged 70 and older significantly reduced the total duration of benzodiazepine use, cumulative benzodiazepine dose, and use of adjunctive medications in the treatment of AWS.

Evaluation of the use of inhaled medications by hospital inpatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is increasing. Patients with COPD are treated with a variety of inhaled medications. Previous studies evaluating inhaler technique have had varied results but have generally found high rates of misuse of these devices. There is a paucity of studies of inhaler technique focusing on North American patients with COPD who have been admitted to hospital. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the inhaler technique of patients with COPD who have been admitted to hospital and to identify baseline patient characteristics and/or inhaler devices associated with poor inhaler technique. METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of COPD who were admitted to the hospitalist or internal medicine service at a tertiary care hospital in British Columbia between October 2010 and April 2011 were identified. After giving informed consent, recruited patients demonstrated their inhaler technique, which was evaluated with standardized checklists. Errors in technique were categorized as either noncritical or critical. Critical errors were defined as those resulting in little or no medication reaching the lungs. RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients (mean age 78 years) participated in the study. Twenty-two (59%) of the patients made critical errors while demonstrating their inhaler technique. Patients using metered-dose inhalers were more likely to make a critical error than patients using other inhalers (13/14 [93%] versus 9/23 [39%]; relative risk 2.38, p = 0.002). On average, 26% of the steps for using an inhaler were performed incorrectly. Twenty-three (62%) of the patients reported having received previous counselling on inhaler technique, but only 13 (57%) of these 23 patients had received such counselling in the previous 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: More than half of the patients in this study misused their inhaler devices, and many made critical errors that would result in inadequate amounts of drug reaching the lung. Many of the patients were not receiving regular counselling on appropriate inhaler technique. Health care professionals should be aware of poor inhaler technique, should routinely evaluate their patients' inhaler technique, and should provide counselling.

Diagnostic reasoning by hospital pharmacists: assessment of attitudes, knowledge, and skills.

BACKGROUND: Hospital pharmacists participate in activities that may be considered diagnostic. Two reasoning approaches to diagnosis have been described: non-analytic and analytic. Of the 6 analytic traditions, the probabilistic tradition has been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce unnecessary testing. To the authors' knowledge, pharmacists' attitudes toward having a diagnostic role and their diagnostic knowledge and skills have never been studied. OBJECTIVES: To describe pharmacists' attitudes toward the role of diagnosis in pharmacotherapeutic problem-solving and to characterize the extent of pharmacists' knowledge and skills related to diagnostic literacy. METHODS: Pharmacists working within Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services (British Columbia) who spent at least 33% of their time in direct patient care were invited to participate in a prospective observational survey. The survey sought information about demographic characteristics and attitudes toward diagnosis. Diagnostic knowledge and skills were tested by means of 3 case scenarios. The analysis included simple descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to evaluate relationships between responses and experience and training. RESULTS: Of 266 pharmacists invited to participate, 94 responded. The attitudes section of the survey was completed by 90 pharmacists; of these, 80 (89%) agreed with the definition of "diagnosis" proposed in the survey, and 83 (92%) agreed that it is important for pharmacists to have diagnosis-related skills. Respondents preferred an analytic to a non-analytic approach to diagnostic decision-making. The probabilistic tradition was not the preferred method in any of the 3 cases. In evaluating 5 clinical scenarios that might require diagnostic skills, on average 84% of respondents agreed that they should be involved in assessing such problems. Respondents' knowledge of and ability to apply probabilistic diagnostic tools were highest for test sensitivity (average of 61% of respondents with the correct answers) and lower for test specificity (average of 48% with correct answers) and likelihood ratios (average of 39% with correct answers). CONCLUSIONS: Respondents to this survey strongly believed that diagnostic skills were important for solving drug-related problems, but they demonstrated low levels of knowledge and ability to apply concepts of probabilistic diagnostic reasoning. Opportunities to expand pharmacists' knowledge of diagnostic reasoning exist, and the findings reported here indicate that pharmacists would consider such professional development valuable.