Current status of clinical pharmacy care and service in local hospitals

Abstract

Background: Although clinical pharmacy care and services have been introduced in our country since 1990, the structure and organization of units providing pharmaceutical care and services in hospitals and the offered care and services differ. This study is motivated by the lack of research on the clinical pharmacy care and service provided in the local hospital. Aim: To study the current clinical pharmacy care and service status in a local hospital. Materials and Methods: Analytical research on local hospitals’ clinical pharmacy care and service was conducted using a cross-sectional study. The descriptive statistics were performed using the SPSS-26.0 statistical program to calculate the mean and standard deviation for quantitative variables and the frequency and percentage for qualitative variables. Results: The local hospitals included in the study have 110-500 beds, the number of pharmacists working in the hospital is 1-8, the number of clinical pharmacists is 0-3, and an average of 0.198±0.149 clinical pharmacists per 50 beds and an average of 243.31±98.72 beds per clinical pharmacist. Among primary clinical pharmacy care and service, training for medical professionals (93.3%) and training for patients (80.0%) is the best, and participation in clinical research (20.0%) and services aimed at improving drug safety (40.0%) are the least introduced. 53.3% of the surveyed hospitals do not provide ward visits, clinical pharmacokinetics, and cytotoxic preparation services, and 66.7% do not participate in nutrition team members. Pharmacists regularly provide the services of dispensing medicine (3.07±1.751) and evaluating prescriptions (3.2±0.775). Conclusions: There are 243.31±98.72 beds per clinical pharmacist in the local hospitals, which does not meet the requirements of the MNS 5260:2015 standard. The local hospital’s clinical pharmacy care and services range is small and different.