Quality Assurance of Drug Information Services in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The concept of drug information by clinical pharmacists in our setting is still in growing phase. Lack of awareness on pharmacists’ role, late installation of clinical pharmacy education and service, shortage of skills and poor acceptance of such services by clinical pharmacists among health care sector are some major factors contributing to the same. Often the poor quality of such services also has a marked effect on the perceptions by health care professionals and patients. Considering these facts, it is essential to assess the quality of such services provided by pharmacists and find scope for improvement.

Material & methods: A prospective cross-sectional design was used to appraise the quality of drug information services (DIS) provided by the clinical pharmacist at a pilot drug information centre set at SAL Hospital and Medical Institute. The quality assurance procedures were carried out in two steps: step one quality compliance against the standards by internal and external experts and step two was user satisfaction survey.

Result: The quality assurance audit by experts reported a total score of 46 (0-60). In user satisfaction survey, the feedback was collected from all the users using a self-designed checklist. The results indicated that even though the receipt and response to queries were good, there is a need to improve the way of utilizing drug information resources and answering the queries.

Conclusion: The presented audit results described the current level of standards in the services offered and suggested areas of improvement. Such attempts to determine the quality of services is essential to improve and strengthen clinical pharmacy services across the country.