Effects of pharmacist intervention on the utilization of vancomycin in a teaching hospital

In order to investigate the effect of pharmacist intervention on vancomycin use,this study was performed on all patients receiving vancomycin in the intensive care unit (icu) and hematology-oncology ward of taleghani educational hospital in tehran,iran. vancomycin use was assessed during a pre- and post-intervention period in accordance with the center of disease control and prevention (cdc) and infectious diseases society of america (idsa) guidelines. following the intervention,there was a significant change in appropriate initiation of vancomycin (p = 0.009) and no significant improvement was observed in adequate dosage and the duration of therapy (p = 0.15 and p = 0.54 respectively); however,informing the physician resulted in discontinuation of the drug in 50% of inappropriate cases and vancomycin dosage was adjustedin 31% of cases. temperature charts,culture results and pre-treatment cbc tests changed significantly (p = 0.02,p = 0.009 and p = 0.04 respectively). the rate of infusion related adverse drug reactions did not decrease significantly (p = 0.06); yet in 100% of patients,these reactions were resolved after notifying the nursing team. after pharmacist intervention,vancomycin use improved in some aspects. a significant improvement in appropriate initiation of therapy was observed; however,treatments continued despite negative cultures. it is necessary to optimize the use of vancomycin by performing more educational interventions. © 2015 by school of pharmacy shaheed beheshti university of medical sciences and health services.