Evaluation of a Pharmacist-Driven Pediatric Dose Rounding Protocol.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Medication errors are 3 times more likely to occur in pediatric populations due to calculation and rounding errors. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a pharmacist-driven pediatric dose rounding protocol on the dose rounding of medications, measurable volumes of inpatient and discharge prescriptions, and potential cost savings. METHODS: This single center, quasi-experimental study evaluated patients younger than or equal to 18 years of age prescribed intravenous or enteral liquid medications during an inpatient, observation, or emergency department encounter. The primary outcome of rate of measurable dose volumes was evaluated pre- and post-implementation of the protocol. Secondary outcomes, including the number of discharge prescriptions affected by pharmacist dose rounding, an evaluation of protocol effect, and prescriptions dose rounded to limit the number of packages per dose, were evaluated using a cross-sectional analysis of the post-group. RESULTS: Four hundred seventy-seven patients and 1060 medications were evaluated in a 1-month period. The rate of measurable volumes increased from 72% to 93% in the post-group (p = 0.0001). In the post-group, 197 patients had 313 medications dose rounded by pharmacists per protocol. Of the 55 discharge medications in the post-group, 21 prescriptions (38%) matched inpatient orders that had been dose rounded by pharmacists. Twenty-four medications were rounded down to a whole package size resulting in an estimated cost savings of $117 (approximately $1400 per year). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a pharmacist-driven dose rounding protocol significantly increased the rate of measurable volumes administered to pediatric patients at our institution.