Sub therapeutic, pharmacy
Statement of the Problem: A medication-related problem is an event or circumstance involving medication therapy that actually or potentially interferes with an optimum outcome for a specific patient. There are at least the following categories of drug related problems (DRPs): Untreated indication. Medication use without indication, improper drug selection, Sub therapeutic dose, over dose, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, non-compliance and drug duplication1. Drug therapy problems include medication errors. The 2000 institute of medicine (IOM) report To Err Is Human has bought the problem of errors in medicine to world’s attention. An estimated 44,000 – 98,000 deaths per year are caused by medical errors, of those 7,000 deaths are as a result of medication errors2. The drug related problems can be prevented and managed by incorporating the concept of pharmaceutical care, which involves direct and responsible provision of medication-related care for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient’s quality of life, a new concept that represents growth in the pharmacy profession beyond clinical pharmacy and traditional pharmacy.
Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: The prospective study was done for a period of 4 months, in the internal medicine department of a tertiary care hospital. Patient specific subjective and objective data was collected from the medical charts. Drug therapy was reviewed on a daily basis until discharge and drug related problems were identified. The DRPs were bought to the notice of the physician and pharmacist recommendations were provided. The accepted recommendations were documented as pharmacist interventions.
