Prevalence of adverse drug events in emergency departments. FARM-URG multi-center project.

OBJECTIVE

Adverse drug events are a well-known cause of emergency department admissions. FARM-URG is a project promoted by  the REDFASTER working group of the Spanish Society of Hospital  Pharmacy. Its aim is to evaluate these adverse events through regular  prevalence measurements. The present study shows the results of the first observations. The goal was to determine the prevalence of adverse drug  events with respect to the total number of patients treated in emergency  departments and carry out a description of the different events identified.

METHOD: This is a multicenter cross-sectional study carried out in the emergency room of 13 Spanish hospitals. The identification and  registration of patients were obtained from the emergency department  patient census at the time of the first prevalence measurement (16 June  2020). The REDCap® platform was used for patient registration.

RESULTS

The 2020 FARM-URG registry, which included 13 hospitals, evaluated 772 patients, of whom 57 (7.4%) consulted for  adverse drug events. Antithrombotic drugs were responsible for most of  these episodes, acenocoumarol being the main drug involved (22.8%).  Nine (15.8%) adverse drug events were caused by inappropriate drug  prescriptions according to the STOPP-START criteria. Nineteen (33.0%)  patients returned to the emergency service within 30 days from discharge.

CONCLUSIONS

Adverse drug events are a frequent cause of emergency department visits and are commonly associated with a  significant percentage of re-visits. The FARM-URG project has been created with the purpose of obtaining dynamic and updated information on such  events.