Scoring system aims to reduce adverse drug events

The University of Florida (UF) College of Pharmacy is working on a new scoring system that would help hospitals determine the best pharmacist staffing to prevent adverse events and improve patient safety, according to a press release.

Almut Winterstein, PhD, a professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy at the UF College of Pharmacy, received a two-year $499,000 grant from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Foundation to head up a research team that will develop and validate the scoring system. The complexity score will use automated information in patients’ EHRs to predict which admitted patients are at greatest risk of having an adverse drug event and therefore require medication management services.

The system initially will be developed and tested at the UF Health Shands Hospital and UF Health Jacksonville. In the study’s second year, the complexity score will be validated in 13 diverse hospitals in Florida. Eventually, the researchers plan to make the scoring system available nationwide for integration into EHRs.

“Adverse events in healthcare have received increasing attention over the past two decades because many are preventable. Errors surrounding the selection or dosing of medications have been described as one of the most prominent areas in healthcare that result in preventable adverse events,” Winsterstein said in a statement.