Current status of clinical pharmacy care and service in district hospitals

Abstract

Background: The structure and organization of units providing pharmaceutical care services in our country’s hospitals differ, and the offered care services differ. This study is based on the fact that no research has been done on the clinical pharmacy care provided in the district hospital. Aim: To study district hospitals’ current clinical pharmacy care and service status. Materials and Methods: Analytical research on clinical pharmacy care and service provided to inpatients of the district general hospital and health center were studied as of 2023 and 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 district hospitals included in the study have 30-400 beds, the number of pharmacists working in the hospital is 1-9, the number of clinical pharmacists is 0-4, and an average of 0.22±0.17 clinical pharmacists per 50 beds and an average of 204.57±118.1 beds per clinical pharmacist. Among the primary clinical pharmacy care services, providing training and information to medical specialists and doctors (100%) and conducting cost-effectiveness research (85.7%) were the best-introduced services. The ward pharmaceutical care services provided by the district hospital’s pharmacy department are different; 100.0% of the surveyed hospitals do not prepare injectable mixtures, and 85.7% do not offer the services of working as a nutritional team or preparing cytotoxic medicines. Conclusion: There are 204.57±188.1 beds per clinical pharmacist in the district hospitals, which does not meet the requirements of the MNS 5260:2015 standard. The district hospital’s clinical pharmacy care and services range is small and different.