Rational Drug Use Under the Scheme of RDU Hospital PLEASE in District Health Promoting Hospitals at Khong Chai District, Kalasin Province

Abstract

This action research aimed to study outcomes of rational drug use (RDU) under the scheme of RDU Hospital PLEASE of District Health Promoting (DHP) hospital in Khong Chai district, Kalasin Province, by collecting the rate of antibiotics use in patients with upper respiratory tract infections (URI) and acute diarrhea in 7 DHP hospitals between October 2017 and March 2018. The reason behind this study was the observation on the increased risk of antimicrobial resistance due to failure of RDU indicator achievement. The advantages of RDU Hospital PLEASE include (1) strengthening pharmacy and therapeutic committee (PTC), (2) competency developing standardized labels, additional labels and patient information leaflets, (3) implementing the essential tools for rational use of medicines, (4) establishing awareness of RDU concepts for health professionals and patients, (5) supporting safety use of medicines in the special populations, and (6) promoting ethical concern in prescription. Before implementing the RDU Hospital PLEASE, the percentage of DHP hospital with an appropriate antibiotic use in patients with URI and acute diarrhea were 3 DHP hospitals (42.9%) and 2 DHP hospitals (28.6%), respectively. The plan-do-check-act cycle was applied in the study. It was found that the implementation of the RDU Hospital PLEASE had resulted in the improvement of an appropriate antibiotics use for URI in all 7 DHP hospitals (100.0%) and for acute diarrhea in 6 DHP hospitals (85.7%). In order to promote appropriate antibiotic use in patients with URI and acute diarrhea, the RDU Hospital PLEASE should be implemented continuously together with the RDU in communities.