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 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
Objective: The ambulatory pharmacy practice is a crucial part of the healthcare system that delivers pharmaceutical care to the patients who are not admitted to the hospital. The aim of the study to explore the patient satisfaction of ambulatory care pharmacy services in Pediatrics and Maternity Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a 4-month cross-sectional survey of patient satisfaction of ambulatory care pharmacy services in Pediatrics and Maternity Hospital, Saudi Arabia. The survey consisted of forty-eight (48) questions divided into two parts: the first part collects demographic information and the second part contains questions on 11 domains: (1) medication availability, (2) patient counseling, (3) pharmacist and patient relationship, (4) medication reconciliation, (5) medication aberrance, (6) pharmacy location, (7) pharmacy waiting area, (8) pharmacy communications, (9) pharmacy waiting time, (10) pharmacy recommends to others, (11) overall patient satisfaction of pharmacy services. The survey was distributed to the hospitals in Riyadh city, included pediatrics and maternity hospitals ambulatory care patient. The survey was in an electronic format and it analyze the results through the Survey Monkey system. Results: A total of 237 patients responded to the survey. Out of 237 patients, 217 (91.6%) was Saudi and 20 (8.4%) was non-Saudi. There were 151 (63.7%) female and 86 (36.3%) male responders. Most of them were in age group of 18-44 years (70%) without any significant differences in the age groups among the hospitals. The highest level of education was high school 91 (38.4%) followed by the Bachelor’s degree 93 (39.2%) and an intermediate school 44 (18.6%). The mean [±standard deviation (SD)] waiting time to get the medications was 13.6±4.75 min. The average scores of domains 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 were 3.11, 3.1, 3.61, 1.87, 1.72, 3.4, 2.77, 1.93, 3.68 and 3.56, respectively. With a total of 231 (97.4%) responders, general evaluation of pharmacy services was found to be very good to excellent, whereas 228 (96.2%) responders recommend the pharmacy to their family or friends and 224 (95.3%) responders prefer to revisit pharmacy. Conclusion: More than two-thirds of the patients were pleased with ambulatory care pharmacy services at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Medication reconciliation, medication adherence and pharmacy waiting area domains were not found to be satisfied. Improving ambulatory care pharmacy services will avert drug misadventures, avoid additional cost and surge patient satisfaction with pharmacy services.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: To explore the patient satisfaction of ambulatory care services at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a 4-month cross-sectional survey of patient satisfaction of ambulatory care pharmacy services at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The survey consisted of 48 questions divided into two parts: the first part collects demographic information and the second part contains questions on 11 domains: (1) medication availability, (2) patient counseling, (3) pharmacist and patient relationship, (4) medication reconciliation, (5) medication aberrance, (6) pharmacy location, (7) pharmacy waiting area, (8) pharmacy communications, (9) pharmacy waiting time, (10) pharmacy recommends to others and (11) overall patient satisfaction of pharmacy services. The survey was distributed to the three hospitals in Riyadh city, included public, pediatrics and emergency hospitals ambulatory care patient. The survey was in an electronic format and it analyze the results through the Survey Monkey system. Results: A total of 606 patients responded to the survey. There were 338 (55.8%) female and 268 (44.2%) male responders. Most of them were in age group of 18–44 years (65.3%) without any statistically significant differences in the age groups among the three hospitals (p<0.5). The highest level of education was high school (232 (38.4%)) followed by the Bachelor’s degree (191 (31.6%)) and an intermediate school (117 (19.4%)). Most of the patients visited the ambulatory care pharmacy 3 to 4 times in the past 12 months (239 (41.1%)), whereas the others (105 (18.1%)) visited the ambulatory care pharmacy for the first time. The mean (±standard deviation (SD)) waiting time to get the medications was 18.36±11.32 min and there were statistically significant differences among the three hospitals (p<0.5). The average scores of domains 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 were 3.35, 3.2, 3.7 and 1.96, 1.8, 3.7, 3.25, 2.14, 3.61, 3.54, respectively. With a total of 381 (62.87%) responders, general evaluation of pharmacy services was found to be very good to excellent, whereas 369 (60.9%) responders recommend the pharmacy to their family or friends and 315 (52.5%) responders prefer to revisit pharmacy. Conclusion: More than half of the patients were satisfied with ambulatory care pharmacy services at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Medication reconciliation, medication adherence and pharmacy communication domains were not found to be satisfied. Improving ambulatory care pharmacy services will prevent drug misadventures, avoid additional cost and increase patient satisfaction with pharmacy services.