ROLE OF PHARMACIST IN ENHANCING APPROPRIATE USE OF THERAPEUTIC ANTIMICROBIALS IN SURGICAL WARDS

Mohammad E. Al-Bdairat*, Abla M. Al-Bsoul, Nidal A. Younes and Ala Aldeen Alfagara

ABSTRACT

The role of pharmacist in the patronage of inpatients evolved over time with enlarged assurance on patient interaction and collaborative care. Our study aimed to determine the role of pharmacists in enhancing appropriate use of antimicrobials in surgical wards. The study was designed as a randomized controlled study. Two hundred patients at the surgical wards of Jordan university hospital (JUH) were recruited. Patients were randomly assigned to intervention or control group. Patient files were reviewed and patients were interviewed. Length of stay, direct cost and number of readmissions were compared between two groups. The rate of antimicrobials related problems was (56%; 15%) in intervention groups before and after researcher’s interventions respectively, with significant difference (p=0.0001). The rate of readmissions were (9%) in control group and (5%) in intervention group with significant difference (p=0.026). The net acquisition cost reduced for therapeutic antimicrobials as 33.08 JD (16.58%) per patient. The acceptance rate of researcher interventions was (73.3%). the mean length of stay was (8.9; 7.66) days in control group and intervention group respectively, with no significant difference (p =0.753). Our study demonstrates that the pharmacist intervention in surgery wards enhancing appropriate use of therapeutic antimicrobials, decrease direct cost of antimicrobials used and decrease readmissions rate. Most of the clinical pharmacist interventions were accepted by health care providers. Clinical pharmacist interventions non-significantly decreased the length of stay of patients.

Keywords: Pharmacist, antibiotics, surgical wards, antimicrobial.