ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF DRUG INFORMATION SERVICES PROVIDED BY CLINICAL PHARMACISITS IN A SOUTH INDIAN TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL
The study was to assess and evaluate the drug information services provided by the clinical pharmacist in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Guntur. The drug information queries received during ward rounds, by telephone, direct access, internet etc. were documented in the drug information request and documentation forms prepared by the department. These forms were evaluated retrospectively for a period of 12 months, from April 2012 to May 2013, for various parameters like status of the enquirer, specialty of practice, mode of receipt of query, purpose of query, type of query etc. The quality of drug information services provided was assessed both from the receivers’ as well as from the providers’ perspective. A total of 144 queries were received during the study period of which most of them were received by the doctors 122(84%) followed by them were interns and nurses 7(4%) each. Most 98(68%) of them were asked during ward rounds and relatively higher number 42(29%) of queries were also asked with direct access. Most of the queries 97(67%) were asked to update knowledge followed by 47(33%) for the better patient care. Most of the queries were replied in the printed format 103(71%), E-mail 16(11%), oral 15(10%) and written 10(6%) respectively. Most 73(50%) of the queries were asked with the purpose of complete drug profile followed by ADRs 28(19%) and drug availability 18(12%). Maximum 75(52%) of the queries were replied with a day and 48(33%) of the queries were answered within a week. Certain queries which needed immediate replies were answered immediately 18(12%). Most 64(44%) of the sources used to reply for the queries were clinical pharmacology software followed by text books 60(41%), journals 35(24%) and websites 32(22%) respectively. Maximum number of queries were received by the department of general medicine 62(43%) followed by neurology 19 (13%) gynecology, cardiology 13(9%) each and oncology 12(8%) respectively. From the evaluation of feedback forms it was found that the drug information center had been providing quality information