Assessing the impact of the presence of pharmacists in a clinical department of a Lebanese hospital.

BACKGROUND

Clinical pharmacy services are still in their very early implementation stages in Lebanon. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacist's presence at the infectious diseases department of Hôtel-Dieu de France University Hospital of Beirut (HDF) and to evaluate the acceptance of pharmacist's interventions by healthcare providers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A 21-month prospective analysis was conducted, including 240 hospitalized patients in the infectious diseases department of HDF and 475 interventions performed by the pharmacist. A clinical pharmacist and pharmacy residents were present for 1 to 2hours/day in the ward. A pharmaceutical care plan was established and used to document patients' problems and pharmacist's interventions. Main criteria analyzed were: types and frequencies of pharmaceutical problems detected, types of pharmaceutical interventions performed, their acceptance by the prescribers and/or nurses, and factors affecting the interventions and their acceptance.

RESULTS

The most frequent pharmaceutical problem detected was incorrect dosage and the three most frequent interventions performed by the pharmacist were stop/start/substitute a drug, change drug dosage/or daily distribution, and change administration time. The acceptance was the highest for I.TIM (change drug administration time) and the lowest for I.FOL (request a lab test/exam/clinical follow-up).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Even a short daily pharmacist's presence is an added value in inpatient care at the infectious diseases department of Hôtel-Dieu de France University Hospital. Areas of improvement are a better communication between the pharmacist and the prescribers, a direct contact between pharmacist and patient and a longer presence of the clinical pharmacist in the clinical department.