Assessing the impact of an electronic therapeutic drug monitoring record in the management of vancomycin through pharmacist intervention: a single-centre study

Background

A gap in vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) electronic documentation, management, and related clinical pharmacist activities was identified by our clinical pharmacy team. In response, an electronic TDM (eTDM) template was planned, designed, and implemented by the pharmacy department team in collaboration with the electronic medical records team (EMR) and documentation committee.

Aim

To assess the impact of an electronic therapeutic drug monitoring (eTDM) template to measure the impact of adherence to vancomycin guidelines. Guideline adherence indicators include the number of vancomycin levels within the therapeutic range and the number of appropriate concentrations taken.

Method

An interventional, single-centre study of vancomycin therapy in adult patients was performed from 2019–2021. Data were extracted from the electronic medical records and TDM paper-based forms completed by clinical pharmacists. The number of concentrations within the therapeutic range and the number of appropriately taken levels were analysed by the chi-square test. This study received an exemption from the Peninsula Health Human Research Ethics Commitee (QA/60523/PH-2019/197291).

Results

There was a total of 198 concentrations collected in the ‘before’ period and 125 concentrations collected in the ‘after’ period. The number of concentrations in therapeutic range increased from 34.8% to 43.2% (p = 0.132), not statistically significant. The number of concentrations taken appropriately increased from 33.8% to 55.2% (p < 0.001). The proportion of patients with pharmacist involvement increased from 43.0% to 57.0% (p = 0.868).

Conclusion

The study shows that implementation of an electronic vancomycin monitoring template improved the proportion of appropriate levels taken and is the preferred method of documentation by clinical pharmacists. Future projects may benefit from analysing the cost associated with unnecessary vancomycin serum levels ordered or inclusion of pharmacists in the TDM of other narrow therapeutic medications.