In this descriptive, retrospective study, we analyzed the types of questions posed by healthcare professionals to drug counselors at a\nmedical center and the types of provision of pharmaceutical advice solicited to improve pharmaceutical care quality and establish\nclear directions for clinical pharmacist training. We collected 8,558 questions posed by healthcare professionals (physicians,\n38%; pharmacists, 39%; nurses, 23%) from the electronic drug information record system from May 2013 to April 2015 in one\nmedical center. Overall, 52% and 45% of calls came from outpatient and inpatient departments, respectively. Telephone was the\nmain route of provision of pharmaceutical advice (total, 6,035 questions; 72%), and hospital/electronic formulary was the main\nreference type (43%). The top 10 topics were dosage, alternatives, drug name, usage, adverse drug reactions, medication suggestion,\ndrug compatibility, national health insurance criteria, mechanism, and indications. Pharmacological classification inquiries most\nfrequently addressed antimicrobial agents (20%), and vancomycin was the top single drug. Finally, 67% of calls were completed in\n5 minutes. Our results suggest that the systematic organization of issues into a searchable database would reduce inquiry durations\nand improve work efficiency. Furthermore, the availability of various search tools and methods would quickly provide healthcare\nprofessionals with provision of drug information needed to improve patient medication safety.
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