ABSTRACT
Background : prescribing errors have direct effect on the patients and resulting in the losses of resources, time and expenditure. The present study was to investigate the prevalence of prescription errors, characteristics of the errors, and the physician’s responses to the notified errors. These data will be useful for developing the strategies to improve the patient care.Methods : This is a prospectively descriptive study. The prescriptions from the outpatient Srinagarind Hospital Department, during October 1, 1998 and September 30, 1999 were examined for the errors by pharmacists and were then categorized according to the error characteristic.Results : Of the 297,471 prescriptions examined, errors occurred in 1,275 (0.43%). The most frequent prescription errors were related to the drug potency (30.27%), followed by the errors associated with the drug dosage and use (27.58%), and the drug name (14.77%), respectively. When the errors were notified to the physician, major of them (74.16%) modified in order to correct the prescription.Conclusions : Prescription errors may lead to fatal treatment outcomes. The present study indicates that the Srinagarind Hospital should be aware of the problems and develop a practical guideline to prevent the prescription error
ABSTRACT
Background: Easy Asthma Clinic (EAC) at Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, Thailand was established in February 2004. EAC is an ambulatory asthma clinic which implemented the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines and it has been incorporated into the practice. The goal of EAC is to improve the quality of care for asthmatic patients utilizing multidisciplinary approach involving physicians, nurses and pharmacists; however drug related problems (DRPs) have been still occurred because asthma is a chronic disease which requires long term medication therapy and special technique, these lead to the decrease in effectiveness of therapy. Therefore, pharmacist has an important role in managing these DRPs in order to improve the drug therapy in asthmatic patients. Objective: To study DRPs and pharmacist’s intervention on managing DRPs in EAC. Method: The descriptive and retrospective study design was conducted for patients in EAC, Srinagarind Hospital during 1st July 2005 to 30th June 2007. The selection criteria were patients who have been followed up at least two times. The outcomes of pharmacist’s intervention were evaluated in the following appointment. Result: There were 303 patients recruited, of which 111 (36.6 %) were males and 192 (63.4%) were females with their mean age of 54 years old. Numbers of visits were 906 (3 times per person). There were 225 patients (74.3%) with DRPs, 591 problems in total. The most DRPs were non-compliance (62.9%) and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) (36.2%). In terms of non-compliance, most highly occurred problems were incorrect technique of administrations (62.9%) and under dosage of medication (32.0%). A pharmacist resolved or prevented DRPs by counseling patients (98.7%) and consulting physicians (1.3%). Pharmacist’s interventions improved patient compliance (36.3%) by describing disease and the importance of using medications, teaching appropriate technique of administration (22.8%), counseling on management and prevention of ADRs (20.4%) and educating lifestyle modification (20.6%). Pharmacist’s intervention could resolve the problems (48.1%). Non-compliance was resolved 49.2%, ADRs were resolved 44.9% and other DRPs, which were discussed with the physician, were totally resolved. Conclusion: Pharmacist’s intervention on managing DRPs could resolve DRPs, and help patients to use their medications appropriately.