Clinical Pharmacy Services in Jeddah Hospitals: Evaluating Current Situation

摘要

Objective: To evaluate the current clinical pharmacy services in government and private hospitals in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Design and methods: A questionnaire was developed, composed of indicators for evaluating clinical pharmacy services recommended by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) guideline and American Collage of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). The questioner is composed of five sections: staffing, policy and procedure, drug information services, drug distribution and delivery and finally optimization of medication therapy. Pharmacy director(s) or hisher designee were interviewed by a pharmacy intern to answer the questions. Result:The Study included 19 hospitals in the governorate of Jeddah. The total number of clinical pharmacist was 41 pharmacists serving a total of 4697 beds. Lack of documentation of pharmacists’ intervention was a major problem, since (26.3%) of our visited hospitals did not have sufficient documentation system although they had pharmacists. In this study only (26.3%) of hospitals had electronic transmission system for prescriptions, and (31.5%) had electronic formulary system. Most hospitals had efficient drug distribution system and (63.1 %) had both unit doses and floor stocks. Intravenous admixtures were not efficient in most hospital, (26.3%) had TPN preparation while (42.1%) prepare sterile IV product in the pharmacy, and only (47.3%) of hospitals had a unit dose repackaging system. The majority of hospitals (94.7%) allowed pharmacist to review patient profile. Some hospitals (57.8%) had a drug use evaluation (DUE) system, the remaining lack this important part of the clinical pharmacy practice and only 5 (26.3%) had drug information services. Conclusion: Although the majority of the hospitals attained the minimum criteria for clinical pharmacy services, these services are still insufficient or inefficient to be acceptable. Pharmacist should have expanded role as drug information provider and the number of practicing clinical pharmacist should be increased. Hospital administrators should lead pharmacy practice toward the clinical and patient care practice.