National Survey of Clinical Pharmacy Practice in Saudi Arabia-2017-2018: Performances and Activities

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the national survey of clinical pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia from 2017-2018 with an emphasis on performances and activities. Methods: This is a 4-month cross-sectional national survey regarding clinical pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. The study consisted of two parts:The first part collected demographic information and the second part comprised a questionnaire with 51 questions divided into four domains. The questions were derived from the standards of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and Saudi Pharmaceutical Society (SPS) survey, the international standards of the Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation, in addition to the local standards of Saudi Center of Healthcare Accreditation. The four domains were as follows: clinical pharmacy administration and management, performances and activities, education and training and workload documentation. The responses were obtained using a 5-point Likert response scale system with close-and open-ended questions. The survey questionnaire was distributed in an electronic format to the 31 directors of pharmacies at various hospitals in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we analyzed the national survey of clinical pharmacy practice at hospitals in Saudi Arabia with regard to performances and activities. All data were obtained through the Survey Monkey system. Results: The survey questionnaire was distributed to 31 hospitals. Majority of the specifications of clinical pharmacy services provided were for concurrent and routine monitoring of drug therapy of the patients (17 (54.84%)) and written medication history (16 (51.61%)). Majority of the clinical services recorded was for answering drug information inquiries (74.19%), error and adverse drug event reporting (70.97%) and medication administration (70.97%). Most of the pharmacy units had clinical pharmacy services for control and narcotics system (4.13 (82.60%)), unit dose system (4.07 (81.40%)) and adults emergency medication (3.45 (69%)). Most of the hospital programs had clinical services existed for stewardship antimicrobial (64.52%), medication safety (61.29%) and medication reconciliation/history-taking (54.84%). Most of the methods of clinical pharmacist prescribing privileges in relevant hospital programs was prescribing under physician supervision (66), followed by independent prescribing (49) and refill prescribing (20). Conclusion:The performances of clinical pharmacy services monitoring of drug therapy only; that is including medication misadventures monitoring and prevention through antibiotics, medication safetyrelated services. The clinical pharmacist had inadequate prescribing privilege under physician supervision. Targeting of upgrading the clinical pharmacy performances and privilege is higher recommended with New Saudi vision 2030 to improve patient clinical outcome and avoid any economic burden of the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia.

Knowledge of Pharmacists about Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Medications in Saudi Arabia

“…The CPR medication at the nursing and CPR box should be inspected monthly to ensure all medications supply available with appropriate expiration dates. [5,16,17] The participants of the CPR code currently are optional according to pharmacy services. However, the pharmacist should certify with BLS and ACLS before participating in the code.…”

“…That's expected because the pharmacist's main job during the CPR code is to provide medication, as discussed previously in pharmacist practice in CPR. [5,14,[19][20][21] In contrast, the lowest knowledge was about the doses and method of administration for NCLS, as discussed previously of pharmacist practice in all patient's types of CPR. [5,14,[19][20][21] That's due to only one-half of responders being certified by the NCLS.…”

“…Over the past years, clinical pharmacy services expanded at hospital pharmacies locally. [1][2][3][4][5][6] That includes various programs, such as drug information services, pain management, total parental nutrition, anticoagulants services, antimicrobial stewardship program, and critical care services. [7][8][9][10][11][12] All previous services required specialized clinical pharmacists or trained pharmacists.…”

“…[13][14][15] Few studies evaluate the CPR knowledge or competency of pharmacists. [5,14,15,[19][20][21] Most of the previous focused on pharmacists participating in the CPR code services. [5,14,15,20,21] At the same time, one study only discussed pharmacist knowledge of CPR and focused on CPR technique, not discussed medications.…”

“…[5,14,15,[19][20][21] Most of the previous focused on pharmacists participating in the CPR code services. [5,14,15,20,21] At the same time, one study only discussed pharmacist knowledge of CPR and focused on CPR technique, not discussed medications. [19] The authors were unaware of any investigation into pharmacist knowledge of the CPR medications locally or in the gulf and Arabic countries.…”