Pharmacist-led pre-treatment assessment, management and outcomes in a Hepatitis C treatment patient cohort

Background Medication reconciliation and drug–drug interaction management represent important patient safety processes completed by pharmacists as part of Hepatitis C patient care. Objectives To describe the pharmacist-led interventions of medication reconciliation and drug–drug interaction assessment, grading and management in a real-world Hepatitis C treatment cohort and to assesses the impact on patient outcomes. Setting Two Hepatitis C hospital outpatient clinics at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin. Method Patients treated with Hepatitis C direct acting anti-viral agents between December 2014 and February 2017 were included in this retrospective cohort study. The study employed a standardised medication reconciliation proforma and drug–drug interaction reference list. Main outcome measures Analyse medication variances identified during pharmacist-led medication reconciliation. Assess the prevalence, type and severity of drug–drug interactions between direct acting anti-virals and co-medications. Assess the rate of prescriber acceptance of the pharmacist-developed drug–drug interaction management strategies. Results Among the 300 patients in this study, medication reconciliation identified 1543 co-medications, with 71% of patients prescribed co-medications which were subject to a potential drug–drug interaction. Drug–drug interaction assessments assigned a rating of severe to 68 interaction episodes. At least one co-medication was stopped during treatment in 25% of patients to facilitate drug–drug interaction management. Pharmacist proposed management recommendations were accepted by prescribers in 96.9% of cases. The sustained virological response rate among the cohort was 92.7%. Conclusions In this Hepatitis C pre-treatment pharmacist assessment analysis, a significant number of medication reconciliation variances and clinically significant drug–drug interactions were identified which present unique and important patient safety risks. Pharmacist-led management strategies aided the achievement of optimum treatment response while promoting patient safety and antiviral stewardship.