Development of Pharmacy Services to Reduce Drug-Related Problems in Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital, Nong Hong District, Buriram Province

Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a pharmaceutical care model that could reduce drug-related problems at primary medical cares facilities. It was conducted at 7 health promoting hospitals in Nong Hong Dostrict, Buriram Province. The activities in the model included teaching patients by physician with medication guidance and treatment guidelines, preparing medicine boxes with clearly visible drug name tags in the hospital pharmacy units, training on drug dispensing and advising on drug keeping and labeling, organizing meeting among pharmacist team to reduce drug items with similar names, annual monitoring of pharmaceutical administration and dispensing drugs by pharmacists. Data on drugrelated problems (DRPs) were collected during the period before the medel development and during the model implementation. Eight categories of the DRPs were used in this study which consisted of untreated indications, improper drug selection, sub-therapeutic dosage, failure to receive medication, over dosage, adverse drug reaction, drug interaction, and invalid indication. The data were analyzed using mean percent and standard deviation. It was found that the model was useful for reducting the DRPs. The percentage of the incidents during the implementation period (January - May 2013, 2017 and 2015) was gradually reduced when compared with that of thebaseline (October - December 2555). As a result, the pharmacy service model had enhanced treatment effectiveness, increased cost-effectiveness, and improved safety of health services.