What Interventions Should Pharmacists Employ to Impact Health Practitioners’ Prescribing Practices?

• DOI: 10.1345/aph.1g300
• Publication Date: 2006-08-09T03:39:20Z
• Authors: Kelly A Grindrod; Payal Patel; Janet E Martin
• Keywords: Outreach; Academic detailing

To determine which interventions are effective in influencing health practitioners' prescribing practices and explore differences intervention complexity, setting, sustainability, cost effectiveness, impact on patient outcomes.A systematic search for English-language reviews was performed MEDLINE, Cumulative Index of Nursing Allied Health Literature, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library from date inception to July 2005 using terms accordance with recommendations. Included were required clearly report a strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, literature assessment methods synthesizing or summarizing information references. Two reviewers independently identified studies inclusion, assessed study quality, extracted relevant information. Interventions classified as consistently effective, inconsistently effectiveness uncertain.Thirty-four 4585 titles reviewed met inclusion criteria. Quality scores ranged 70% 100%. Consistently included reminders (manual computerized), audit feedback, educational outreach visits, organizational strategies, patient-mediated interventions. Inconsistently computer decision support systems meetings. Multi-faceted shown be more efficacious than single Limited data precluded exploration effects different settings, sustainability effect, clinical outcomes.Interventions that most impacting practice include reminders, maximize impact, pharmacists' efforts positively should focus these types rather relying primarily passive didactics dissemination guidelines.