Chong Kah Mun, Rajiah Kingston, Chong David, Maharajan Mari Kannan
Student, Master in Pharmacy Practice, School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM) School of Pharmacy, GITAM Deemed University, Hyderabad, India.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 May 19;9:884482. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.884482. eCollection 2022.
In supplying medicines to patients and consumers waste can occur in prescribing, dispensing, and leftover stages. Pharmacists in community pharmacies play a crucial role in dispensing and should share information on appropriate medicines disposal with consumers. This qualitative study explored how Malaysian community pharmacists manage medication wastage, returned medicines, and medicines disposal by eliciting their opinions on medicines wastage, the challenges faced, and feasibility of medicine return and safe medicine disposal in the setting of Malaysian community pharmacy.
Telephonic interviews were conducted using a pre-validated interview guide among community pharmacists. Purposive sampling was used to ensure heterogeneity of participants in terms of gender, age, and position in the pharmacy. The interview was conducted until a point where no new information was obtained. Interview data were thematically analyzed.
The analysis identified nine themes organized into four domains. The results revealed that pharmacists have positive perceptions of the safe disposal of medicines. Pharmacists mentioned that medicine returns to service in community pharmacies are not common due to a lack of facilities in the management of unwanted, expired, and returned medicines. As such pharmacists have suggested a few ways to minimize medicinal wastage.
Respondents aimed to minimize medicines wastage (unused medicines) in order to minimize loss of revenue. Respondents did not usually accept returned medicines due to the operational costs of safe disposal. Disposal of unused medicines was undertaken by centralizing the stocks at an organization facility before being disposed of by outsourced waste management companies.
在向患者和消费者供应药品的过程中，处方、配药和剩余药品阶段都可能产生浪费。社区药房的药剂师在配药过程中起着关键作用，应与消费者分享有关药品妥善处置的信息。这项定性研究通过了解马来西亚社区药剂师对药品浪费、所面临的挑战以及药品回收和安全处置的可行性的看法，探讨了他们如何管理药品浪费、回收药品和药品处置。
使用预先验证的访谈指南对社区药剂师进行电话访谈。采用目的抽样法以确保参与者在性别、年龄和药房职位方面具有异质性。访谈持续进行，直到没有获得新的信息为止。对访谈数据进行主题分析。
分析确定了九个主题，分为四个领域。结果显示，药剂师对药品的安全处置持积极态度。药剂师提到，由于缺乏管理不需要的、过期的和回收的药品的设施，社区药房药品回收再利用的情况并不常见。因此，药剂师提出了一些减少药品浪费的方法。
受访者旨在尽量减少药品浪费（未使用的药品），以尽量减少收入损失。由于安全处置的运营成本，受访者通常不接受回收药品。未使用药品的处置是通过将库存集中在一个组织设施中，然后由外包的废物管理公司进行处置。
