Characteristics and quality of adverse drug reaction reporting: a comparison of pharmacists with other healthcare providers at a multi-specialty hospital in Qatar

Abstract

Objective: Rumailah Hospital (RH) is a multi-specialty hospital with a capacity of 605 beds that serves subacute and long-term patients in Qatar. Since under-reporting and low-quality reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are widespread phenomena globally, there is a need for greater insight into pharmacists' and other healthcare professionals' roles in ADR reporting in RH. Thus, this study primarily aimed to compare the number, quality, and characteristics of ADR reports received from pharmacists compared with other healthcare providers at RH in Qatar. Methods: A retrospective descriptive analysis of ADR reports submitted by healthcare providers at RH between January 1, 2012 and October 1, 2014 was conducted. Results: A total of 92 ADR reports were submitted by different healthcare providers, of which 42.8% were by pharmacists, 38.4% by physicians, and 8.8% by nurses. Most of the physicians' (65.7%), nurses' (62.5%), and pharmacists' (41.0%) ADR reports were judged to be of high quality (grade 2) based on the World Health Organization's quality scheme (p>0.05). A causality assessment using the Naranjo algorithm revealed that 62.2% of the reports were 'possibly' caused by the suspected medications, while 31.1% were considered to 'probably' have been caused by the suspected medications (p<0.05). Furthermore, most of the ADR reports were type B (54.9%) and unpreventable (64.8%) according to the Medication Appropriateness Index. One hundred percent and 91.2% of nurses' and physicians' ADR reports were for unpreventable events, respectively, while 41.0% of pharmacists' reports were for definitely preventable ADRs (p < 0.05). Conclusions: ADR reporting at RH was undertaken by different healthcare professionals, and a high proportion of the reports were judged to be of high quality. ADRs reported were often unpreventable. There were differences between the characteristics and causality scores of ADR reports between different healthcare professionals. There is a need to develop interventions that will further increase ADR reporting as well as the quality of the reports.