Physicians' and pharmacists' perceptions on real-time drug utilization review system: a nationwide survey.

Objective: To identify healthcare providers' experience and satisfaction for the drug utilization review (DUR) system, their impact on prescription changes following alerts, and difficulties experienced in the system by surveying primary healthcare centers and pharmacies.

Design: A cross-sectional nationwide survey.

Setting and participants: Approximately 2000 institutions were selected for the survey by a simple random sampling of nationwide primary healthcare centers and community pharmacy approximately practices, and 358 replied.

Main outcomes measures: The questionnaire included questions on experience and recognition of DUR alerts, personal attitude and respondents' biographical information. Space was included for respondents to suggest improvements of the DUR system.

Results: The DUR system scored 71.5 out of 100 points for satisfaction by physicians and pharmacists, who reported that the alerts prevent medication-related errors; most respondents (96.6%) received the alerts. Several respondents (10.9%) replied that they prescribe or dispense prescriptions as they are without following the alerts. Physicians (adjusted odds ratio, 8.334; 95% confidence interval, 3.449-20.139) are more likely to change the prescription than pharmacists and persons with alert experience (4.605; 1.080-19.638). However, current practice in metropolitan areas (0.478; 0.228-1.000) and frequent alerts regarding co-administration incompatibilities within prescriptions (0.135; 0.031-0.589) negatively influence adherence to DUR alerts.

Conclusions: Although most surveyed physicians and pharmacists receive the alerts, some do not or reported that they would not follow the alerts. To increase adherence, the DUR system should be improved to ensure a preferential and intensive approach to detecting potentially high-risk drug combinations.