title: Frequency and trends of interventions of prescriptions in Flemish community pharmacies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the role of the community pharmacist in medication management.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participating Flemish pharmacists quantified their interventions during two weeks by use of validated diagrams. The clinical interventions were recorded in detail, while the technical interventions were only registered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  124 pharmacists participated. Intervention was needed in 4.1% of the total number of prescriptions (n = 87.647). On average, 20.2 technical and 8.4 clinical interventions over a period of 2 weeks per pharmacy were needed. The main problem was missing or incorrect data on administering the drug (23%). Missing or incorrect advice (37.8%), dose-related problems (26.1%) and interactions or contra-indications (20.2%) were mentioned as important clinical discrepancies. The pharmacists utilized the patient medication records to solve most of the problems. In one out of five cases, the physician was contacted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interventions by community pharmacists in medication management have been recorded in this study. The results should be translated into a process of integrated pharmaceutical care.
authors.affiliation: Division of Drug and Patient Information, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, K.U. Leuven, Belgium. lies.leemans@farm.kuleuven.ac.be
authors.forename: Lies
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leemans
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Veroeveren
authors.forename: Jef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bulens
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hendrickx
authors.forename: Williame
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Keyenberg
authors.forename: Frie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Niesten
authors.forename: Jules
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vandeberg
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Hoof
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laekeman
mesh_terms: D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012984:Software; D016312:Treatment Refusal