Background Central Norway Pharmaceutical Trust consists of six hospital pharmacies covering eight hospitals. In partnership with a research group at the University of Lund and the Lund Hospital Pharmacy, Sweden, we implemented a model for clinical pharmacy services named Integrated Medicines Management (IMM) based on the Lund IMM model (LIMM) and the IMM model from Northern Ireland. Two years on we have evaluated the service.

Purpose To evaluate the implementation of clinical pharmacy services with regard to reduction in medicines errors (MEs), with the main focus on discrepancies in medicines reconciliation (MedRec) and drug related problems (DRPs) from medicines reviews (MRs); and benefits for patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs).

Materials and Methods The report builds mainly on studies, mini-audits and questionnaires. Four master thesis/projects completed in 2012 in our region studied the IMM model in hospital and primary care. Two mini-audits were completed during 2012 as benchmarking of daily activities and recording of MEs. Three questionnaire surveys were conducted; one investigating clinical pharmacists’ experiences with the model, the second exploring the attitudes of and usefulness for HCPs and the third was a patient satisfaction survey.

Results Up to 70% of patients had one or more discrepancies between the drug lists in hospital and at home. Most discrepancies were due to drug(s) missing in the drug history. On average 2.1 DRPs per patient were identified and acted upon. Most DRPs were classified as: need for additional treatment and choice of drug/dose not appropriate. HCPs and pharmacists rated the service highly (5.1–5.5 on a 6-point scale) with regard to patient benefits and usefulness for HCPs.

Conclusions The model has been successfully implemented in hospitals in Central Norway. Further research will be needed to investigate end points such as reduced length of hospital stay and time to readmission. We plan to provide a more extensive service to all patients in our region, also in the community.

No conflict of interest.