Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 

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POTENTIAL DRUG INCOMPATIBILITIES IN PRIMARY CARE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

BOŽANA SLOBODAN NIKOLIĆ 1,2*, TAMARA VLADO POPOVIĆ 3,4, VLADIMIR VELIMIR TODIĆ 5 , SONJA RAJKO PERIČEVIĆ-MEDIĆ 6,7

1 Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
2 Health Center Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
3 Department of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
4 Clinic for Psychiatry, University Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
5 Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad,Serbia
6 Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
7 Institute of Occupational Health of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

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Drug incompatibilities can compromise the safety and effectiveness of parenteral therapy. However, they have been insufficiently studied in primary care. The present study, therefore, aimed to identify potential incompatibilities in primary care and propose tools to reduce incompatibility risk. Data on patients and drugs were collected from electronic health records. The potential for (in)compatibilities was identified at the level of drug pairs, in accordance with data from three literature sources. A total of 190 patients were included in the study. The median number of prescribed drugs per patient per day was 2.0 (IQR, 1), ranging from 2 to 5. Of 431 drug pairs identified through prescriptions, 106 (24.6%) were compatible, 37 (8.6%) were incompatible, and 288 (66.8%) had unknown compatibility. Among potentially incompatible pairs, 62.2% (23/37) involved intravenous therapy. The drugs most frequently included in potentially incompatible pairs were pantoprazole and diazepam. Several tools have been proposed to reduce the risk of incompatibility: the compatibility table, the pH color system, flushing the intravenous line, and switching intramuscular therapy to oral therapy.