Final answer:
A Drug Utilization Review (DUR) per OBRA 90 involves three main components: Prospective DUR, Retrospective DUR, and Educational Programs. These components are critical for ensuring proper medication use, reducing adverse events, and securing optimal drug therapy outcomes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Drug Utilization Review (DUR) is an authorized, structured and ongoing review of prescribing, dispensing and use of medications. This process is a safety and quality assurance measure that occurs in both retrospective and prospective settings to ensure medications are used appropriately. According to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA '90), DUR has three main components:
- Prospective DUR: Before a prescription is dispensed, this process involves evaluating a patient's planned drug therapy for potential problems such as therapeutic duplication, drug-disease contraindications, drug interactions, incorrect drug dosage or duration of drug treatment, drug-allergy interactions, and clinical abuse/misuse.
- Retrospective DUR: This process involves reviewing patients' drug therapy on a regular basis. It is designed to identify patterns in drug usage that suggest overuse, underuse, or misuse of drugs, as well as to ensure compliance with evidence-based medicine.
- Educational Programs: Education for both prescribers and patients about the appropriate use of drugs with the goal of improving drug therapy and reducing the risk of adverse events.
This comprehensive review aims to safeguard patients from potentially harmful drug events and to ensure optimal drug therapy outcomes.