Abstract

REYES HERNANDEZ, Ivette et al. Characterization of the pharmaceutical care practice in hospital institutions located in Santiago de Cuba. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2013, vol.47, n.2, pp.225-238. ISSN 0034-7515.

Introduction: the panorama of the Latin American countries at present shows that at hospital setting, the concept of pharmaceutical care is adopted, but the practice proves that it continues being focused in drugs and dispensation. The use of easy-to-measure indications to find out the characteristics of the functions related to this exercise may represent the confirmation these realities. Objective: to characterize the practice of pharmaceutical care in hospital institutions. Methods: a retrospective research study was carried out and covered years 2005 through 2007 in hospital institutions of Santiago de Cuba. Some indicators were set on the basis of the criteria for the pharmaceutical care activity included in the Manual de normas y procedimientos de farmacias hospitalarias" and of the criteria found in the international literature. The reported registers of pharmaceutical care sent to the provincial health division were also taken into consideration. Results: the indicators revealed that the pharmacotherapeutic follow-up activities (some indicators over 70 %) exceeded those of health education (barely reaching 5 %) and information about drugs for patients and health professionals (never over 13 %); however, they are not either standardized or permanent. Additionally, the pharmaceutical interventions were well-accepted by the health teams (over 70 % acceptance rate) but they are still insufficient to deal with the number of problems connected with the detected medications. Conclusions: the implementation of the pharmaceutical care is not a regular and standardized practice by the pharmaceutical professional in the studied institutions. The aforementioned points to the need of drawing up strategies to improve this professional endeavor.

Keywords : in-hospital pharmaceutical services; clinical pharmacy; pharmaceutical care; indicators.

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