Pharmaceutical neonatal severity score: proposition of a tool to reduce drug-related problems
Keywords:
Neonatology, Pharmacy Service, Medication ReviewAbstract
Introduction: The complexity and specific care demands of the neonatal population corroborate the proposition of a tool which optimizes prioritizing activities of the clinical pharmacist. The scarcity of data related to drug monitoring in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) fosters the need for studies and the development of tools in this field.
Objective: To propose a tool in order to help clinical pharmacists reduce drug related problems in NICU.
Methodology: The current study has been carried out in the NICU of a tertiary hospital. It includes all the newborns reviewed by the clinical pharmacist for a period of six months in 2021. A tool was proposed to assess the criticality of newborns, and it was developed taking into account both clinical information and prescribed medications. The score ranks from C1 (most severe health condition) to C7 (less severe health condition). Data have been collected using a pharmaceutical monitoring tool adapted from Martinbiancho et. al, 2021, as well as electronic medical record system.
Results: A total of 316 newborns were admitted in the NICU during the period of the study. From these, a number of 289 were reviewed by the pharmacist - representing 91.5%, as well as 240 were categorized using the severity score. This practice resulted in 126 pharmaceutical interventions (PIs) in medical prescriptions. The rate of intervention/patient classified as C1 score (most severe health condition) was 1.68, followed by 2.18 for C2. The rate obtained for less severe health condition newborns (C7) was 0.24. The analysis in the C1 group resulted in a relative risk (RR) of 2.86 of presenting PIs in the medical prescription (p<0.0001).
Conclusion: The proposed pharmaceutical score proved to be simple and capable of categorizing newborns according to the severity of health conditions. It was also effective in directing follow-up according to the risk of developing Drug Related Problems.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Giovanna Webster Negretto , Bruno Simas da Rocha, Janaína Rodrigues Chagas Gonzatti , Michele Gai Schmidt
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
