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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background/Objective: Drug-related problems (DRPs) are a common, potentially avoidable cause of emergency department (ED) use. In December 2022, our hospital integrated a pharmacist-led intervention into routine ED practice. This intervention comprised medication optimization, adherence counseling, and coordinated hand-off to primary care. We quantified 30- and 90-day reconsultations after discharge and explored factors associated with DRP-related revisits. Methods: A retrospective cohort of adults (≥18 years) who attended a tertiary ED (Barcelona, Spain). We included index DRP visits from 1 December 2022 to 30 June 2024. All received the bundle. Demographic, clinical, and pharmacotherapeutic data were extracted from the Catalan Shared Health Record; an independent committee classified revisits as a DRP or non-DRP. Predictors of 30-day DRP revisits were assessed with multivariable logistic regression. Results: Among 1247 patients (mean age 78.6 ± 16.2 years; 59.2% women; and median nine drugs), 120 (9.6%) reconsulted the ED within 30 days, and 194 (15.5%) within 90 days for any cause. DRP-specific rates were 30.8% (37/120) at 30 days and 26.3% (51/194) at 90 days; 81% and 80% of these revisits, respectively, involved a recurrence of the same DRP. The most frequent index DRPs were constipation (14.2%), gastrointestinal bleeding (9.2%), hypertension (8.3%), seizures (8.3%) and hyponatraemia (6.7%). An age ≥ 80 years independently predicted fewer 30-day DRP revisits (OR 0.32; 95% CI 0.13–0.79); hypertension and cognitive impairment were not significant after adjustment. Conclusions: In this single-arm implementation cohort, overall, 30-day ED reconsultations were 9.6% and about one-third were DRP-related, predominantly recurrences, and chiefly gastrointestinal bleeding and seizures. These descriptive findings should be interpreted cautiously given potential survivorship bias and residual confounding; the apparently lower risk among patients aged ≥ 80 years is hypothesis-generating and may reflect geriatric care pathways and caregiver engagement. Targeted post-discharge monitoring for high-recurrence DRPs may help reduce avoidable ED use, and future evaluations should test this in quasi-experimental or randomized designs.

Details

Title
Emergency Department Reconsultations After a Secondary Prevention Bundle for Medication-Related Problems: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Author
Plaza-Díaz Adrián 1 ; Juanes-Borrego, Ana 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sanz-Lopez, Natalia 3 ; González-Bueno, Javier 4 ; Fernández-Morató Jordi 5 ; García-Peláez Milagros 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ruiz-Ramos, Jesús 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Pharmacy Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Sant Antoni Maria Claret 167, 08025 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected] (A.J.-B.); [email protected] (J.R.-R.), Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR SANT PAU), Sat Quintí 77-79, 08041 Barcelona, Spain, Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain 
 Pharmacy Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Sant Antoni Maria Claret 167, 08025 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected] (A.J.-B.); [email protected] (J.R.-R.), Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR SANT PAU), Sat Quintí 77-79, 08041 Barcelona, Spain 
 Emergency Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Sant Antoni Maria Claret 167, 08025 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected] 
 Pharmacy Department, Hospital Dos de Maig Consorci Sanitari Integral, 08025 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected], Central Catalonia Chronicity Research Group (C3RG), University of Vic—Central University of Catalonia (UVIC-UCC), 08500 Vic, Spain 
 Pharmacy Department, Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa, 08227 Terrassa, Spain; [email protected] 
 Pharmacy Department, Hospital General de Granollers, 08402 Granollers, Spain; [email protected] 
First page
6907
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20770383
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3261079406
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.