Evaluation of poison information services provided by a new poison information center.

AIM: The aim of this study is to assess the nature and quality of services provided by poison information center established at a tertiary-care teaching hospital, Mysore. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a prospective observational study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The poison information center was officially established in September 2010 and began its functioning thereafter. The center is equipped with required resources and facility (e.g., text books, Poisindex, Drugdex, toll free telephone service, internet and online services) to provide poison information services. The poison information services provided by the center were recorded in documentation forms. The documentation form consists of numerous sections to collect information on: (a) Type of population (children, adult, elderly or pregnant) (b) poisoning agents (c) route of exposure (d) type of poisoning (intentional, accidental or environmental) (e) demographic details of patient (age, gender and bodyweight) (f) enquirer details (background, place of call and mode of request) (g) category and purpose of query and (h) details of provided service (information provided, mode of provision, time taken to provide information and references consulted). The nature and quality of poison information services provided was assessed using a quality assessment checklist developed in accordance with DSE/World Health Organization guidelines. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Chi-Square test (χ(2)). RESULTS: A total of 419 queries were received by the center. A majority (n = 333; 79.5%) of the queries were asked by the doctors to provide optimal care (n = 400; 95.5%). Most of the queries were received during ward rounds (n = 201; 48.0%), followed by direct access (n = 147; 35.1%). The poison information services were predominantly provided through verbal communication (n = 352; 84.0%). Upon receipt of queries, the required service was provided immediately (n = 103; 24.6%) or within 10-20 min (n = 296; 70.6%). The queries were mainly related to intentional poisoning (n = 258; 64.5%), followed by accidental poisoning (n = 142; 35.5%). The most common poisoning agents were medicines (n = 124; 31.0%). The service provided was graded as "Excellent" for the majority of queries (n = 360; 86%; P < 0.001), followed by "Very Good" (n = 50; 12%) and "Good" (n = 9; 2%). CONCLUSION: The poison information center provided requested services in a skillful, efficient and evidence-based manner to meet the needs of the requestor. The enquiries and information provided is documented in a clear and systematic manner.

Prospective assessment of patterns, severity and clinical outcome of Indian poisoning incidents.

The objective of this study was to assess the patterns, severity and clinical outcome of poisoning incidents. A prospective assessment was conducted over a period of 1 year in tertiary-care teaching hospitals. Glasgow coma scale (GCS), poisoning severity score (PSS), and snake bite severity score (SSS) were used to predict the severity of poisoning, and then compared to the clinical outcome. The study involved 212 patients with a mean age of 26.7±12.7 years. Pesticides were found to be the most common poisoning agents. The incidents of intentional poisoning (n=178) were higher than accidental (n=34) poisoning. Poisoning incidents were higher in male population (n=132) compared to female population (n=80). The poisoning incidents were predominantly higher among literates (n=155). The poisoning incidents were higher in rural areas (n=129), followed by urban (n=53) and semi-urban (n=30) areas. The poisoning incidents were highest in the middle class population (n=108), followed by poor class (n=101) and rich class (n=3) population. A majority of patients whose severity of illness was predicted to be mild to moderate recovered from the poisoning. In contrast, patients whose illness was predicted to be severe were either discharged with severe morbidity or deceased. There was a moderate correlation between GCS and PSS scoring systems (r=0.51, p<0.001).

Study of drug utilization pattern of antihyperglycemic agents in a South Indian tertiary care teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the drug utilization pattern of antihyperglycemic agents (AHA) in a tertiary care teaching hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a prospective observational study. All the relevant data were collected and drug utilization pattern of AHA was determined. Direct cost associated with the use of antihyperglycemic medicines was calculated and consumption of the antihyperglycemic medicines was measured as defined daily dose (DDD)/100 bed-days. The adverse drug reactions (ADRs) related to anti-diabetic medicines were monitored. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Chi square test (χ(2)), mean±standard deviation. RESULTS: During the study period, 350 patients diagnosed as diabetes mellitus (DM) were admitted. Insulin was prescribed as monotherapy to 81% and to 52% patients during hospital stay and discharge, respectively. Increase in utilization of insulin was recorded in majority of the patients due to presence of co-morbid conditions or resistance to oral hypoglycemic drugs. Use of insulin at the time of discharge decreased significantly (P<0.05) by 29%. Among the oral AHA, combination of glimepiride with metformin was more prevalent during hospital stay and at the time of discharge monotherapy of metformin followed by glimepiride was more prevalent. During hospital stay, cost of AHA was found to be Rs. 95.27 ± 119.03. The total antihyperglycemic drug consumption in the medicine ward during study period was 13.42 DDD/100 bed-days. Fifty ADRs were reported and descriptions of ADRs were found to be only hypoglycemia. CONCLUSION: The study exhibited a significant increase in the utilization of two drug combination therapies and monotherapy of oral AHA and decrease in the utilization of insulin at the time of discharge.