Outpatient traditional Chinese medicine counseling：a retrospective analysis of 785 cases / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To improve the skills of pharmacists in pharmaceutical care and to provide patients with better individualized pharmaceutical care.Methods A total of 785 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) counseling outpatient cases, consultation modes, objectives, consulting drugs, consulting problems were analyzed.Results Office counseling was the dominant method for TCM counseling (85.10%), followed by telephone counseling (14.90%). Of all the counselings, patients and their relatives accounted for 80.63%, where females was 60.25% and males 39.75%; and patients over 40 years of age accounted for 81.91%. Of all the pharmacy counseling, heart system disorder were the major (14.79%), followed by drugs for Qi, blood and body fluid disorder (12.61%); the contents of counseling were diversity, which included dosage and administration amounts (29.04%), experience for drug use (14.14%), drug interactions (10.39%) and adverse reactions (9.55%). Conclusion TCM counseling could offer an effective platform of communication between pharmacists and patients, improve patients' medication compliance, and ensure patients' safe, rational, economical and effective.