Development of a consensus-base list of criteria for prescribing medication in a pediatric population

Background Although many people are involved in the optimal use of a medication within this process, the use of medications carries risks of adverse events, which are greater in the pediatric population because of many factors. Objective In this context, our aim was to develop a consensus-based list of criteria for the safety of the pediatric medication-use process or circuit (referred to from now on as the CIRCUS tool: CIRcuit-of-Child-drug-USe). Setting Multicenter with a trio of experts from eight university hospitals. Methods A literature search (1998–2013) was conducted in order to identify the different safety practice domains for the pediatric medication use process. Twenty-six safety practice domains were identified and 48 compliance criteria were formulated. In order to reach a consensus on the most relevant compliance criteria for safety practices, an international 24 French-speaking multidisciplinary panelists (8 doctors, 8 pharmacists and 8 nurses) selected to represent a broad range of experience levels and specialties took part in a two round Delphi survey which was conducted between March and July 2013. Each panelist was asked to rate each proposed criterion on a 1–9 Likert scale in order to show their level of agreement (i.e. 1 reflects strong disagreement and 9 reflects strong agreement). Main outcome measure Development of a consensus-base list for safety practices in pediatrics. Results Twenty-two of the 24 professionals invited to take part in this survey (92 % participation rate) completed the two Delphi rounds. At the end of the two Delphi rounds, a total of 38/48 (79 %) safety practice compliance criteria achieved consensus by the panelists. The criteria were grouped into 23 domains. Conclusion This study presents the development of a self-assessment tool for safety practices in the pediatric drug-use process using a Delphi method. This tool may be used in order to record and compare the prevalence of best safety practices in the pediatric drug-use process.