ASHP Guidelines on Medication-Use Evaluation

Abstract

These guidelines describe essential elements of the medication-use evaluation (MUE) process for healthcare organizations. These elements include the goals and objectives of a MUE, performance improvement methods, a description of indicators suggesting the need for an MUE, how to prioritize and select medications and processes for evaluation, typical steps in the process, the roles and responsibilities of the interdisciplinary team, common problems and pitfalls, and useful resources. MUE is a systematic and interdisciplinary performance improvement method with an overarching goal of optimizing patient outcomes via ongoing evaluation and improvement of medication utilization.1 Various terms have been employed to describe programs intended to achieve this goal; in addition to MUE, drug use evaluation (DUE) and drug utilization review (DUR) have also been used.1-3 Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, MUE may be differentiated in that it emphasizes improving patient outcomes and quality of...