Community Pharmacy/Hospital Based Assessment of Clinical Pharmacist Intervention for Safe and Effective Drug Use

The purpose of the work was to evaluate the extent of interception of prescriptions requiring review for drug order that could have led to adverse drug events or irrational drug use in the community and public hospital pharmacy unit. Three government hospitals and community pharmacy outlets in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria were selected for the study which lasted 4 months. The pharmacists in the various units were inducted into the purpose of the work and the associated documentation processes. The data collected were patient’s details, reasons for the intervention, doctor’s contact details. The years of experience of the pharmacists in the community was significantly higher than those in the hospital setting in the study (P<0.05). Within the study period, 698 and 1280 interventions were noted in the community and hospital units respectively. The prevalence of pharmacists intervention in terms of ratio of prescriptions generated and interventions made in the hospital was not significantly higher than in the community setting (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the ratio of therapy/information to safety intervention for the two units of practice but there was significant difference in the frequency of safety to therapy/information intervention within the individual units (P<0.05).The percentage frequency of the safety interventions recorded in the hospital and community pharmacy units were thirty two percent (32) and thirty eight percent (38%) respectively. Active screening of prescriptions that leads to effective pharmaceutical interventions during dispensing process can provide useful contribution to healthcare delivery.