An assessment of the need for pharmaceutical care in a general surgical ward at Steve Biko Accademic Hospital in Gauteng Province

Abstract

Summary Summary Summary The words “researcher” and “pharmacist” are used interchangeably. In the last two decades, the role of the pharmacist has been expanding beyond product orientated functions, such as procurement, stock control and dispensing, towards patient centered functions, in which the pharmacist assumes responsibility for treatment outcomes as part of the health care team. This research aimed to assess the need for the provision of pharmaceutical care from the pharmacist to the surgical wards of Steve Biko Academic Hospital. The objectives of the study were to determine the role of the pharmacist in the general surgical wards, to assist in the design of an antimicrobial ward protocol for the surgical wards, to record and assess antimicrobial patterns in the surgical wards, to describe and categorize the interventions performed by a pharmacist during the provision of pharmaceutical care, to identify factors which limited the provision of pharmaceutical care and provide recommendations for future undertakings, to calculate the cost implications of pharmaceutical care interventions made, to assess the time spent on interventions performed by a pharmacist during the provision of pharmaceutical care and to determine if the medical staff members in the surgical unit feel there is a need for the pharmacist providing pharmaceutical services to the wards. The study was conducted in the surgical wards of Steve Biko Academic Hospital. The study design was a cross-sectional operational study in which 62 patients were recruited over the eight week period. A pilot study was conducted to validate the data collection instruments. The data was analyzed with the assistance of a statistician using various statistical methods for the different variables in the study. ix Of the 62 study patients, 33 were female and 29 were male. The female-to-male ratio of the study patients was thus 1:0.88. The average age of the patient population, was 52.5 ± 17.2 years, with a range of 15 to 88 years. The mean duration of stay for the study patients was 8.9 days, with a range 1 to 111 days. A total of 120 diagnoses were made for the 62 study patients. Conditions diagnosed most frequently included conditions affecting the gastro-intestinal tract (38 patients), conditions affecting the cardiovascular system (28 patients), conditions affecting the endocrine system (14 patients) and infections (12 patients). The five medicines used most frequently in terms of numbers of patients and duration of therapy were paracetamol (53 patients, 277 patient-days), morphine/papaverine/codeine (41 patients, 155 patient-days), enoxaparin sodium (24 patients, 113 patient-days), co-amoxiclav (21 patients, 101 patient-days) and metoclopramide (22 patients, 90 patient-days). A total 188 interventions were made and documented during the study period and 153 (81.4%) interventions were accepted. The number of interventions suggested ranged from 0 to 10, with an average of three interventions per patient and a median of one intervention per patient. The most frequent interventions were made due to system error or non-compliance (29.3% of all interventions), on patient or nursing staffs’ knowledge of the medication (18.6%), untreated medical conditions (11.2%), therapeutic duplications (9.0%) and on prescribed doses and dosing frequency (5.9%). The total time spent providing pharmaceutical care services within the surgical wards over the study period was 32 days (227.9 hours) with an average time of 7.1 hours per day. Of the total time in the ward, 48% was spent on providing pharmaceutical care to the patients, 26% to record and access the total antibiotic usage in the ward, 9% on administration and 6% on meetings. Other functions comprising of 3% and less of the time was information to patients, x communication with doctors, educational sessions with nursing staff, communication with the pharmacy and stock control procedures. Questionnaires were completed by the doctors and nursing staff before and after the study period to determine if they felt there was a need for a pharmacist in the surgical ward. The doctors felt that there was a need for a pharmacist in the ward in terms of providing information and assisting in the rational use of medication. All of the nursing staff felt that there was a need for a pharmacist to visit the surgical ward and specifically to assist with the legal aspects of the prescriptions and with the education of the nursing staff. The pharmacist played an important role in the design of an antimicrobial ward protocol and in order to do so the pharmacist recorded and assessed the antimicrobial prescribing patterns of the surgical wards. In conclusion, the pharmacist present in the ward functioned as a gateway between the nursing staff and the doctors. The interventions that require the most attention was made due to system error and non-compliance. Important interventions were made on the patients’ and nursing staffs’ knowledge of the prescribed medication. The pharmacist played an important role in the education of nursing staff to discuss relevant topics and problems often encountered. Educational sessions with the patients involved giving them advice on home medication and the medication prescribed to them to take home. The amount of patients seen per week increased with time and the average time spent per patient consultation decreased with time. This is a clear indication that the researcher gained confidence and became more familiar with the pharmaceutical care process as the time passed. From the questionnaires completed by the doctors and nursing staff it was clear that they felt that there was a need for a pharmacist in the ward in terms of xi providing information, assisting in the rational use of medication, to assist with the legal aspects of the prescriptions and with the education of the nursing staff.