Methods: The questionnaire was developed from the literature together with outcomes from focus group discussions. It was divided into two domains which are knowledge on ME and attitude towards ME reporting. Content validity index (I-CVI), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Cronbach alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) to assess test-retest reliability were obtained during the validation process.
Results: Overall Cronbach alpha for internal consistency was good (0.742), where subscale of the questionnaire demonstrated adequate internal consistency, with Cronbach alpha value 0.83 for knowledge and 0.70 for reporting behaviour attitude. The I-CVI showed good scores (knowledge=0.88) and (attitude=0.81), while ICC was moderately accepted with a value of 0.77. Two factors were extracted from the 16 items in EFA.
Conclusion: The questionnaire to assess knowledge on ME and attitude towards ME reporting among pharmacists is valid and reliable. It demonstrates good psychometric properties.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Amman, the capital and largest city of Jordan, using a validated questionnaire. It was distributed to pharmacists working in community and hospital pharmacies using a convenience sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed in this study.
RESULTS: A total of 340 questionnaires distributed, 300 (88%) pharmacists responded. Over 50% of pharmacists claimed that they have sufficient knowledge regarding FDI. Virtually, the overall median (interquartile range) knowledge score was 18 (15-21), approximately 60%. The highest knowledge scores were for alcohol-drug interactions section (66.6%) followed by both common food-drug interactions and the timing of drug intake to food consumption sections with a score of (58.3%) for each, reflecting a suboptimal knowledge of FDIs among the pharmacists.
CONCLUSION: Pharmacists had unsatisfactory knowledge about common FDIs, with no significant difference between hospital and community pharmacists. Therefore, more attention and efforts should be played to improve awareness about potential food-drug interactions.
OBJECTIVE: To explore perception of community pharmacists in Dubai regarding the obstacles to enhanced pharmacy services using a part of the results from a nation-wide quantitative survey.
METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to 281 full-time licensed community pharmacists in Dubai. The questionnaire had 5 inter-linked sections: demographic information, information about the pharmacy, interaction with physicians, pharmacists' current professional role, and barriers to enhanced pharmacy services.
RESULTS: About half of the respondents (45.4%, n=90) agreed that pharmacy clients under-estimate them and 52.5% (n=104) felt the same by physicians. About 47.5% (n=94) of the respondents felt that they are legally unprotected against profession's malpractice. Moreover, 64.7% (n=128) stated that pharmacy practice in Dubai turned to be business-focused. In addition, 76.8% (n=252) found that one of the major barriers to enhanced pharmacy services is the high business running cost. Pharmacists screened tried to prove that they are not one of the barriers to optimized pharmacy services as 62.7% (n=124) disagreed that they lack appropriate knowledge needed to serve community and 67.7% (n=134) gave the same response when asked whether pharmacy staff lack confidence when treating consumers or not.
CONCLUSIONS: Although being well established within the community, pharmacists in Dubai negatively perceived their own professional role. They stated that there are number of barriers which hinder optimized delivery of pharmacy services like under-estimation by pharmacy clients and other healthcare professionals, pressure to make sales, and high running cost.
METHOD: According to the reported practice address in 2018, the spatial distribution of health care facilities was mapped and explored using the GIS mapping techniques. The density of health care facilities was analyzed using thematic maps with hot spot analysis. Population to facility ratio was calculated using the projection of the population growth based on 2010 census data, which was the latest available in the year of analysis.
RESULTS: The study included geographical mapping of 7051 general practitioner clinics (GPC), 3084 community pharmacies (CP), 139 public general hospitals (GHs) and 990 public primary health clinics (PHC). The health care facilities were found to be highly dense in urban areas than in the rural ones. There were six districts that had no CP, 2 had no GPC, and 11 did not have both. The overall ratio of GPC, CP, GH, and PHC to the population was 1:4228, 1:10,200, 1:223,619 and 1:31,397, respectively. Should the coverage for minor ailment services in public health care clinics be extended to community pharmacies, the ratio of facilities to population for each district would be better with 1:4000-8000.
CONCLUSIONS: The distribution of health care facilities for minor ailment management in Malaysia is relatively good. However, if the scheme for minor ailments were available to community pharmacies, then the patients' access to minor ailments services would be further improved.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of antibiotic stewardship interventions on compliance with surgical antibiotic prophylaxis practice in obstetrics and gynecology surgeries.
METHOD: A prospective pre- and post-intervention study was conducted in two tertiary hospitals between May and December 2016. The duration of the each period was 3 months. Antibiotic stewardship interventions including development of a protocol, educational meeting and audit and feedback were implemented. Data were collected using the patient records and analyzed with SPSS version 23.
RESULTS: A total of 226 and 238 surgical procedures were included in the pre- and post-intervention periods respectively. Age, length of stay and estimated blood loss were similar between the two groups. However, specialty and surgical procedures varied significantly. There was a significant increase in compliance with timing (from 14.2% to 43.3%) and duration (from 0% to 21.8%) of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis after the interventions. The interventions significantly reduced the prescription of third generation cephalosporin (-8.6%), redundant antibiotic (-19.1%), antibiotic utilization (-3.8 DDD/procedure) and cost of antibiotic prophylaxis (-$4.2/procedure). There was no significant difference in the rate of surgical site infection between the two periods. Post-intervention group (OR: 5.60; 95% CI: 3.31-9.47), elective surgery (OR: 4.62; 95% CI: 2.51-8.47) and hospital attended (OR: 9.89; 95% CI: 5.66-17.26) were significant predictors of compliance with timing while elective surgery (OR: 12.49; 95% CI: 2.85-54.71) and compliance with timing (OR: 58.55; 95% CI: 12.66-270.75) were significantly associated with compliance to duration of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis.
CONCLUSION: The interventions improve compliance with surgical antibiotic prophylaxis and reduce antibiotic utilization and cost. However, there is opportunity for further improvement, particularly in non-elective surgical procedures.
Methods: The modified Delphi method was used to obtain the consensus. The initial indicators, based on a literature review, were evaluated and assessed by members of the expert panel through three rounds of repetition until the consensus was reached. The expert panel members were selected based on their knowledge of or expertise in pharmacy service performance and geographical considerations. Analysis of the expert panel consensus level was determined by calculating the mean and interquartile range.
Results: Fifteen expert panel members started the first round (93.7% of the 16 targets) with 12 of them (75%) completing the third round of the modified Delphi method. Three expert panel members were representatives of the Regency Health Office, and the others were pharmacist practitioners at primary health centres from three different regencies. The consensus results were 26 indicators of drug management, 19 indicators of clinical pharmacy services, and two indicators of overall pharmacy performance.
Conclusion: The consensus indicators for measuring drug management, clinical pharmacy services, and overall pharmacy performance can be used as a reference and standard to measure the quality of pharmacy services at primary health centres. Therefore, the measurement results are more relevant if compared between one and other studies.
METHODS/DESIGN: This is a randomized, single-blind, two-arm, controlled trial in patients with rheumatoid arthritis visiting outpatient rheumatology clinics in Karachi, Pakistan. We will enroll patients with established diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis over 3 months. The patients would be randomized through a computer-generated list into the control group, i.e., usual care or into the intervention group, i.e., pharmaceutical care, in a ratio of 1:1, after providing signed written consent. The study will take place in two patient-visits over the course of 3 months. Patients in the intervention group would receive intervention from the pharmacist while those in the control group will receive usual care. Primary outcomes include change in mean score from baseline (week 0) and at follow up (week 12) in disease knowledge, adherence to medications and rehabilitation/physical therapy. The secondary outcomes include change in the mean direct cost of treatment, HRQoL and patient satisfaction with pharmacist counselling.
DISCUSSION: This is a novel study that evaluates the role of the pharmacist in improving treatment outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The results of this trial could set the foundation for future delivery of care for this patient population in Pakistan. The results of this trial would be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03827148 . Registered on February 2019.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Public Health Clinic Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PHC-PSQ) towards pharmacy services was developed using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's α. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 patients visiting the pharmacy in three randomly selected public health clinics recruited via systematic random sampling. Data was collected using a set of questionnaire including PHC-PSQ. Factors associated with patient satisfaction was analysed using multiple linear regression.
RESULTS: Final PHC-PSQ consisted of three domains (administrative competency, technical competency and convenience of location) and 22 items with 69.9% total variance explained. Cronbach's α for total items was 0.96. Total mean score for patient satisfaction was 7.56 (SD 1.32). Older age and higher education were associated with lower patient satisfaction mean score. Patients who had visited the pharmacy more than once in the past three months, perceived to be in better health status and had a more correct general knowledge of pharmacists expressed higher patient satisfaction mean score.
CONCLUSIONS: PHC-PSQ is a newly developedtool to measure patient satisfaction towards pharmacy services in public health clinics in Malaysia. Patient satisfaction was relatively high. Age, education, frequency of visit, self-perceived health status and general knowledge of pharmacists were factors significantly associated with patient satisfaction.
METHOD: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among community pharmacists in all 14 states of Malaysia between November 2021 and July 2022. The self-administered survey was shared to relevant groups through various social media platforms.
RESULTS: A total of 312 community pharmacists were involved in the survey. Majority of the respondents were females (66%), with a mean age (SD) of 32.9 (8.4) years. Most of the respondents showed satisfactory practice for patient counselling, but improvements are needed particularly in risk assessment and collaborative care aspect. Most of them expressed their interest for dyslipidemia management training (89.4%). Lack of access to medical records (71.2%) and lack of CVD-related educational materials (70.8%) were the two main perceived barriers identified.
CONCLUSION: Community pharmacists in Malaysia provide a satisfactory role in the provision of cardiovascular disease-related health promotion activities, especially in providing patient counselling. Strengthening collaborative care is essential for providing comprehensive and patient-centered intervention in dyslipidemia management. This requires ongoing efforts to address and overcome existing barriers for effective teamwork and coordination among healthcare professionals.
METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was employed, and a convenience sampling was opted to collect the data among physicians, pharmacists and nurses working in tertiary care public hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan from September 2018 to January 2019.
RESULTS: Of the 384 questionnaires distributed, 346 health care professionals responded to the questionnaire (90.10% response rate). Most participants had good knowledge about ADR reporting, but pharmacist had comparatively better knowledge than other HCPs regarding ADR (89.18%) pharmacovigilance system (81.08%), its centres (72.97%) and function (91.89%). Most of the participants exhibited positive attitude regarding ADR reporting, such as 49.1% of physicians (P