Problems, interventions, and their outcomes during the routine work of hospital pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Background In the last 30 years, activities of hospital pharmacists have gone through significant changes. Pharmacists are increasingly involved in patient care. Objectives To explore drug-related and logistic problems, interventions, and their outcomes during routine everyday work of hospital pharmacists. Setting Institute for physical medicine and rehabilitation, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods In the period of January 2013-October 2015 a prospective observational study was performed. Medical doctors, nurses, therapists, and patients addressed pharmacists, face-to-face or by telephone, with drug-related problems (DRPs) and/or logistic issues. Main outcome measure Type of DRP or logistic issue, intervention, outcome, initiator and time spent for solving the problem were documented for each consultation. Results Out of 1515 interventions, 48.8% were aimed at solving DRPs. The most common DRPs were the recommendation of a drug or dose and need for additional information about drugs. Drug price and supply were the most prevalent logistic issues. DRPs were more frequently initiated by medical doctors and required more time to solve the problem compared to logistic issues (Mann-Whitney U test, p ≤ 0.001, respectively). The acceptance rate of interventions to solve DRPs (83.7%) was lower compared to logistic issues (95.2%; p ≤ 0.001). Conclusions Hospital pharmacists were faced with an approximately equal number of DRPs and logistic issues during their routine everyday work. The overall acceptance rate of pharmacists' interventions was high, and the results of our study indicate that there is a need for more involvement of hospital pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina in clinical activities. Impact on practice.

Assessment of the potential impact of resolving drug-related problems by clinical pharmacists in Japan: a retrospective observational study

“…Physician acceptance rates for pharmacist interventions are affected by a variety of factors, including the patient, medication, physician–pharmacist relationships, health care system, and roles required of pharmacists. In this study, the overall physician acceptance rate was 82.7%, which is similar to that in previous studies (57.6–90.0%) [ 12 , 13 , 15 – 19 , 22 , 26 ]. This study can be said to have no outstanding differences compared to those in these previous studies.…”

Role of Pharmacist Interventions in Drug Related Problem among Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

“…[16][17][18] The debate of preferring one over two factors, inappropriate drug use or advanced age as the most definitive risk factor for development of DRPs is unsolved. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Solving this issue would provide a huge relevance to medicinal practice, this could allow medical practitioners and pharmacists to provide deserving attention to patients with "true" risk factors. [26][27][28][29][30] A detailed study of DRPs conducted on hospital inpatients can provide much needed insights to healthcare professionals attempting to alleviate the occurrence of DRPs.…”