Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2020 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 5 Articles
Hospital pharmacists are increasingly playing a critical role in the care\nof patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, little is known about their preferences and\nperspectives towards different attributes of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The objective of this\nresearch was to assess pharmacists´ preferences for DMT efficacy attributes. Methods: A multicenter,\nnon-interventional, cross-sectional, web-based study was conducted. Preventing relapses, delaying\ndisease progression, controlling radiological activity, and preserving health-related quality of life\n(HRQoL) and cognition were the attributes selected based on a literature review and a focus group with\nsix hospital pharmacists. Conjoint analysis was used to determine preferences in eight hypothetical\ntreatment scenarios, combining different levels of each attribute and ranking them from most to least\npreferred. Results: Sixty-five hospital pharmacists completed the study............................
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) are likely to be the most common complication of hospital care. Data on HAI in hospitals in country like India are scarce and often inconsistent. Hospital infection control practices remain rudimentary in the developing world, mostly due to severely limited resources. This study was therefore designed to investigate the awareness level about HAI among hospitals, to know the most recognized sources and anti-infective therapy used for such infections in the selected region. It was a simple, exploratory and comparative study conducted for a period of 3 months. 24 tertiary care hospitals in Nagpur city were included in this study by random convenience sampling method. Survey research design method was used for the study, which involved data collection through the responses to the predetermined questions. Urinary Tract Infection was the most common infection with 37.50% respondents, followed by gastro intestinal tract Infection (20.83%) and Respiratory Tract Infection (12.50%). 86.9% respondents used beta-lactum antibiotics as a drug of choice followed by cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone. 55% of hospitals preferred causative anti-infective therapy where as 45% hospitals preferred preventive. The study concluded that majority of hospitals surveyed were using proper anti-infective therapy depending on the infections. Most of the hospitals were using general antibiotic therapy mostly depending upon the type of organism and its culture sensitivity. Most of the hospitals preferred causative approach rather than preventive approach as an anti-infective therapy and over 70% don’t maintain any manual for anti-infective therapy....
Medications errors (MEs) have been a major concern of healthcare systems\nworldwide. Voluntary-based incident reporting is the mainstay system to detect such events in many\ninstitutions. However, the number of reports can be highly variable across institutions depending\non their adoption of the safety culture. This study aimed to evaluate and analyze medication error\nincidents that were submitted through the hospital safety reporting system in 2015 at a tertiary care\ncenter in the western region of Saudi Arabia, and to explore the most common types of harmful MEs\nin addition to the risk factors that led to such harmful incidents. Methods: This is a descriptive study\nthat was conducted utilizing 624 medication error reports extracted from the hospital safety reporting\nsystem. Reports were analyzed based on the medication name, event type, event description, nodes\nof the medication use process, harm score (adapted from the National Coordinating Council for\nMedication Error Reporting and Prevention harm index), patientsâ?? age/gender, incident setting, and\ntime of occurrence as documented in the Safety Reporting System (SRS). Furthermore, all errors\nthat resulted in injury or harm to patients had a deeper review by two senior pharmacists to find\ncontributing factors that led to these harmful incidents and recommend system-based preventive\nstrategies. Results: This study showed that most reported incidents were near misses (69.3%).\nThe pediatric population was involved in 28.4% of the incident reports. Most of the reported incidents\nwere categorized as occurring in the inpatient setting (57.4%). Medication error incidents were\nmore likely to be reported in the morning shift versus evening and night shift (77.4% vs. 22.6%).\nMost reported incidents involved the dispensing stage (36.7%). High-alert medications were reported\nin 281 out of 624 events (45%). Conclusions: The hospital medication safety reporting program is a\ngreat tool to identify system-based issues in the medication management system. This study identified\nmany opportunities for improvement in the medication use system, especially in management of\nchemotherapy and anticoagulant agents....
Transitions of care are high-risk situations for the manifestation of medication\ndiscrepancies and, therefore, present threats for potential patient harm. Medication discrepancies can\noccur at any transition within the healthcare system. Methods: Fifth-year pharmacy students assessed\na best possible medication list (BPML) during a medication review (based on medication history and\npatient interview) in community pharmacies. They documented all discrepancies between the BPML\nand the latest medication prescription. Discrepancies were classified using the medication discrepancy\ntaxonomy (MedTax) classification system and were assessed for their potential clinical and economic\nimpact. Results: Overall, 116 patients with a mean age and medication prescription of 74...............
Managing patients with a chronic condition such as inflammatory\nbowel disease (IBD), requires a multidiscipline approach. The pharmacist might be the first point\nof contact for patients with initial symptoms or relapsing flares, yet there is no available literature\non the role of pharmacists in IBD management. We conducted a survey to explore pharmacistsâ??\nconfidence in and potential barriers to managing IBD and assess the impact of IBD education on their\nconfidence in IBD management. Methods: Surveys assessing confidence levels in managing IBD,\nadditional learning opportunities about IBD and barriers to their learning of IBD management were\nprovided to pharmacists for completion before and after attending an IBD-specific education session\nat a national conference. Results: Of the 195 attendees, 125 participants completed the survey (64%).\nMost respondents reported a low to mid-range level of confidence with managing IBD. Specifically,\nthey were only slightly confident in decision making on patient care, addressing patient needs\nand providing additional support for IBD patients; and somewhat confident with understanding,\nmanagement and providing relevant information on IBD. Whist the education session improved\npharmacists perceived level of confidence, most respondents indicated a need to learn more about IBD.\nAreas of additional learning included science, drug therapy, treatments (includes non-pharmacological\noptions as well) and guidelines. A majority of pharmacists identified time constraints as a key barrier\nto learning. Conclusion: Pharmacists lack sufficient confidence about managing inflammatory bowel\ndisease. These data indicate support within the pharmacy profession to play a more active role in the\nmanagement of IBD....
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