The need for pharmaceutical care in an intensive care unit at a teaching hospital in South Africa
BACKGROUND: The role of the pharmacist has evolved over the last 2 decades beyond traditional functions such as stock control and dispensing. OBJETIVES: To describe the functions performed by a clinical pharmacist while based in a surgical and trauma intensive care unit of a teaching hospital. METHODS: An operational research study that included indications of programme success was conducted. Interventions to assess therapy and achieve definite outcomes to satisfy patients' medicine needs were documented for 51 patients over a study period of 8 weeks. RESULTS: A total of 181 interventions were suggested by the pharmacist, with 127 (70%) accepted and implemented by the medical and nursing staff of the unit. The most frequent interventions were related to: untreated medical conditions (15.5%), appropriate therapy or course (13.8%), investigations indicated or outstanding (12.2%), and inappropriate doses and dosing frequency (11%). Interventions were also made regularly to address system errors or non-compliance and factors hindering therapeutic effect. Of the 250 h the pharmacist spent in the ward, most time was used for pharmaceutical care (28%) and ward rounds (21%) with members of the multidisciplinary team. CONCLUSIONS: The study results demonstrated that a clinical pharmacist's contribution to patient care at ward level resulted in improved monitoring of pharmacotherapy. Medicine-related problems were identified and addressed.
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
South African Medical Association
2014
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| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1562-82642014000200003 |
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