Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the role of pharmacist in providing pharmaceutical care in multidisciplinary team. This study was done at pediatric ward of Maharat Nakornratchasima Hospital between November 1, 2003 to January 30, 2004. Subjects consisted of pediatric patients who were newly admitted to this ward. The pharmaceutical care services included drug therapy monitoring to identify, resolve or prevent drug therapy problems, drug information services and discharge counseling. The success of implementation was evaluated by physicians, nurses and caregivers in term of their acceptance rate. Time study in each step of pharmaceutical care services was determined. Survey on attitude of heath care team toward the implementation of pharmaceutical care services was also assessed. The service was provided to 119 children, 173 potential or actual drug therapy problems were identified in 67 patients (56.3%); an average of 2.58 problems per patient. The common category of drug therapy problems were medication errors [39 (22.54%)], over-dosage [29 (16.76%)], drug interactions [27 (15.61%)] and subtherapeutic dosage [25 (14.45%)], respectively. Pharmacist performed 205 interventions. Among the 134 interventions were resolved or prevented drug therapy problems, the main interventions were changing of the dose. Most of the interventions were fully accepted (85.82%), whereas 2.99% and 11.19% were partially accepted and unaccepted, respectively. The mean time in providing pharmaceutical care of each patient was 40.9 minutes. Full time equivalent of pharmacist staff in pediatric ward based on time study result was 0.83. Survey on attitude of 10 physicians, 16 nurses and 2 pharmacists toward pharmacist's role and implementation of this service revealed a high acceptance rate for pharmacist's role in monitoring medication errors and creating patient medication record. As many as 82.14% of reporters satisfied to have this model implemented in the future.