Evaluation of Antihypertensive Medication Refill Clinic Operated by Pharmacist at Si Prachan Hospital, Suphanburi Province, Thailand - การประเมินผลโครงการคลินิกเติมยา โรคความดันโลหิตสูง โดยเภสัชกรในโรงพยาบาลศรีประจันต์ จังหวัดสุพรรณบุรี

Abstract

          Many patients with stable hypertension who visited the hypertension clinic to get drug refill had to wait for very long time to obtain a doctor prescription for the routine medication. To facilitate the process, a pharmacist-operated “Refill Clinic” project was developed at Si Prachan Hospital, Suphanburi Province since April 2013. The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of the clinic by comparing the levels of blood pressure before and after participating the project, and investigating incidences of drug related problems as well as assessing satisfaction levels of both patients and service providers. It was conducted as a quasi-experimental study during June 2013 till January 2014. Forty three patients and sixteen providers were enrolled in this study. Data were collected by recording patient clinical profiles and questionnaire interviews; and were analyzed by using frequency, percentage and paired t-test. It was found
that the mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels at the refill clinic were not significantly different from those at the Hypertention Clinic (p>0.05). There were 10 drug related problems which were corrected by providing advices (9 cases) and referred to the attending physician (1 case). Majority of the patients (86.0%) were highly satisfied with the quality of services. Providers also expressed their satisfaction with regard to the fast, convenient, and highly efficient services. The auhtors concluded that the refill
clinic under pharmacist management to control blood pressure was found to be as effective as the management of the hypertension clinic in the hospital.
Key words: refill clinic, pharmacist,hypertension