ABSTRACT
The national medications safety program founded in 2013 at the Ministry of Health hospitals and primary care centers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The program focused on adults, pediatrics and neonatal populations. The program was part of the pharmacy strategic plan. The electrolyte replacement therapy preparation and administration for neonates and pediatrics published and distributed as required of the medication safety program. The new initiatives as complementary project was a standardized concentration of electrolyte replacement therapy for neonates and pediatrics implemented at specific hospitals of the Ministry of health. The new project as regular physician’s order form and coveted to computerized physician order entry. The new project prevents neonates and pediatrics medication errors of electrolyte replacement therapy. The project is a new initiative at Ministry of Health hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi, Gulf and Middle East countries.
ABSTRACT
The electrolyte replacement therapy consternation considered one of the high alert drugs. Most of the medication safety organizations have established preventive guidelines for the prescription of electrolyte therapy. The General Administration of Pharmaceutical Care at the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also has established guidelines for the preparation and administration of electrolyte replacement for adult patients. This new initiative is regarding the standardized concentration of electrolyte preparation and administration for adult patients. The electrolyte therapy may be prescribed via a physician order form, which may be easily converted as computerized physician order entry. This from is designed to prevent all electrolyte-related errors and improve patient outcomes. This project is a new tool implemented for electrolyte safety at the Ministry of Health hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
ABSTRACT
The national pediatric pharmacy program was founded in 2014. It is a part of the pharmacy strategic plan. This program has implemented several projects including preparation and administration of intravenous medication to neonates and pediatric patients. The complementary new initiatives program is the neonates and pediatrics standardized concentration of emergency medications with an emphasis on medications used to treat critically ill patients and in emergency department. This new project has physician order form with selected dilutions, concentrations and route of administration. The form may be converted to a computerized order form. The new initiatives of the project may be implemented through project management tools. The project prevents drug-related problem and decrease economic burden on healthcare system for neonates and pediatrics hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
ABSTRACT
The general administration of pharmaceutical care released several publications related to the administration of intravenous medications, which mention about the concentration of intravenous medications for adults, pediatrics and neonatal patients. The publications also include several emergency medications with their concentrations. This new initiative was started in order to guide physicians to select the primary emergency medications in intravenous drip administration. The medications were selected based on common evidence-based standardized concentration for adults. This project required to control high-alert medications and prevent drug-related errors. The list of medications may be covered as computerized physician order entry and this project may be implemented as pharmacy project management.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Pharmacovigilance is considered a useful tool in detecting, assessing, understanding and preventing Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to ensure the safety of medications and protect consumers from ADRs. Consequently, the progression and expansion of pharmacovigilance is urgent for safe and effective clinical practice; therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare the awareness and knowledge of the community and hospital pharmacists toward reporting ADRs in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2016 to March 2016 in Saudi Arabia. A validated and structured questionnaire was distributed by hand or via Internet to 263 hospital and community pharmacists. The questionnaire collected pharmacists’ demographic information and pharmacists’ understanding and knowledge of the pharmacovigilance system and reporting of ADRs. Results: A total of 263 pharmacists responded to the questionnaire with 208 (79.09%) pharmacists from hospital pharmacy sites and 55 (20.91%) pharmacists from community pharmacy responding to the questionnaire. There is a significant difference in the pharmacovigilance concept (p<0.05) between the hospital and community pharmacists. Most community pharmacists were unfamiliar with the existence of a pharmacovigilance center in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, community pharmacists were unaware of where they could get an ADR reporting form, but hospital pharmacists were aware of this (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that pharmacists who work at hospitals among different regions in Saudi Arabia had a higher awareness of the pharmacovigilance system than that of community pharmacists who worked at the community pharmacy.