BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Pharmacists are in a unique position to provide important medication information, prevent errors, and help improve patient outcomes. Patient medication counseling (PMC) is integral in medication therapy management of pharmacists. Students perceive PMC as an important step in ensuring the most appropriate pharmacotherapy for the patients and as an essential component of drug management. The objective of the study is to describe the students’ perceptions on a university-led patient medication counseling program implemented in a patient medication counseling course.

The study employs a qualitative study design with a total population sampling of forty-two (42) Clin Pharm 176 BS Pharmacy students in a College of Pharmacy. A self-evaluation adapted from the United States Pharmacopeia medication counseling behavior guidelines (USP-MCBG) scale was performed which has with four components: needs assessment, precautions and warnings, management of the treatment, and communication. A synthesis session was conducted utilizing a semi-structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using measures of central tendency and thematic analysis.

Forty-two (42) students answered the USP-MCBG scale and participated in the synthesis session. Participants rated highest in communication (88.81±8.78) and lowest in treatment management (79.49±12.90) which suggests that the students were better equipped in displaying effective nonverbal behaviors and using appropriate language but were least confident in developing and managing treatment plans. There were five main domains on how the students evaluated the course and the PMC program which include pre-counseling session requirements, challenges in patient interaction, interprofessional collaboration, professional outlook, and program recommendations.

A university-led PMC program is effective in providing training for student pharmacists to identify and provide recommendations on medication therapy problems, and to practice interprofessional collaboration. It is recommended to continue the student training in the PMC program and to integrate this in the student internship program to evaluate the skills development of students during their clinical rotations.

Due to the characteristics of confusing varieties of Chinese medicinal materials, different sources, complex chemical composition, non-standard preparation process, and non-standard pharmaceutical equipment, the quality of Chinese medicinal preparations is difficult to be controlled and evaluated effectively under the current quality control mode and method of Chinese medicinal preparation. The present study proposed an engineering quality view of Chinese medicine pharmacy and a strategy to control the quality of Chinese medicinal preparations based on the current situation. The "overall, dialectical, and dynamic" multi-factor engineering quality view, covering original medicinal materials, preparation technologies, pharmaceutical equipment, and Chinese medicinal preparations, ensures the traceable process, measurable procedures, and feedback quality. The quality control mode of Chinese medicinal preparation with controllable sources, standardized preparation technologies, green pharmaceutical equipment, and intelligent manufacturing is built up.
Commerce ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Pharmacy ; Quality Control

Objectives: The Pharmacy DOTS Initiative (PDI) was relaunched on a larger scale in 2014 through the Innovations and Multi-Sectoral Partnerships to Achieve Control of Tuberculosis (IMPACT) project. This paper aimed to assess the PDI program through IMPACT by identifying the facilitating and hindering factors in its implementation. The identified factors are classified as to the affected stakeholders or processes.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the PDI Program Manager and four NTP coordinators from selected project sites. Thematic analysis was done to determine the recurring facilitating and hindering factors as identified by the key informants.

Results: Facilitating factors identified include cooperation of the stakeholders, capability-building and a good referral system. The barriers to the implementation were grouped into patient-related, pharmacy-related, health center-related, program-related as well as external factors.

Conclusion: The referral system created through PDI facilitated the flow of referrals starting from the pharmacy. This enabled presumptive patients to have access to health facilities for TB. Hindering factors contributed to the inability of the engaged pharmacies to sustain their consistency and commitment in conducting the PDI interventions.

Key Words: barriers, facilitators, tuberculosis, directly observed therapy, program evaluation, pharmacy

COVID-19 ; Humans ; Medical Informatics Applications ; Pandemics ; Pharmacists ; Pharmacy Service, Hospital/methods* ; Professional Role ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Safety Management/methods*

PURPOSE: We examined the prevalence of anemia, annual screening for anemia, and treatment of anemia with iron among children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS: A retrospective study of U.S. pediatric patients with IBD was performed in the MarketScan commercial claims database from 2010–2014. Children (ages 1–21) with at least two inpatient or outpatient encounters for IBD who had available lab and pharmacy data were included in the cohort. Anemia was defined using World Health Organization criteria. We used logistic regression to determine differences in screening, incident anemia, and treatment based on age at first IBD encounter and sex. RESULTS: The cohort (n=2,446) included 1,560 Crohn's disease (CD) and 886 ulcerative colitis (UC). Approximately, 85% of CD and 81% of UC were screened for anemia. Among those screened, 51% with CD and 43% with UC had anemia. Only 24% of anemia patients with CD and 20% with UC were tested for iron deficiency; 85% were iron deficient. Intravenous (IV) iron was used to treat 4% of CD and 4% UC patients overall and 8% of those with anemia. CONCLUSION: At least 80% of children with IBD were screened for anemia, although most did not receive follow-up tests for iron deficiency. The 43%–50% prevalence of anemia was consistent with prior studies. Under-treatment with IV iron points to a potential target for quality improvement.
Anemia ; Child ; Cohort Studies ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Crohn Disease ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases ; Inpatients ; Iron ; Logistic Models ; Mass Screening ; Outpatients ; Pharmacy ; Prevalence ; Quality Improvement ; Retrospective Studies ; United States ; World Health Organization

BACKGROUND: In order to provide essential scientific evidence on the population's health status and social health determinants as well as the current capacity of the health care system in Vietnam to health policy makers and managers, Vietnam Ministry of Health, Hanoi University of Public Health, Hanoi Medical University, and Ho Chi Minh University of Medicine and Pharmacy collaborated with Seoul National University (Korea) and conducted a health system survey in the Quoc Oai district (of Hanoi capital) that represented northern rural Vietnam. METHODS: The study design was a cross-sectional study. The survey covered different topics (more than 200 questions) and was administered in three separate questionnaires: 1) Basic information of all household members; 2) Household characteristics; and 3) Individual characteristics. Socio-demographic characteristics among the households and individuals were collected from 2,400 households sampled by multi-stage cluster sampling method: more than 200 questions. RESULTS: The household size of Quoc Oai was larger than the national average and there was no significant difference in gender composition. In addition, the proportions of pre-elderly, age 55–64, and elderly group (65 years old and over) were higher than the national population statistics. In this context, demographic transition has begun in Quoc Oai. CONCLUSION: This study design description provides the basic information about a baseline survey of a future prospective cohort (as a part of a collaborative project on strengthening the health system in Vietnam) to the prospective data user of this survey.
Aged ; Cohort Studies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Family Characteristics ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Methods ; Pharmacy ; Population Characteristics ; Population Dynamics ; Prospective Studies ; Public Health ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Vietnam

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Since the introduction of hospital pharmacy residency programs in 1983, hospital pharmacists in South Korea have been expected to expand their roles. However, their services and the outcomes have not been fully understood. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of Korean hospital pharmacist-provided interventions with regard to intervention type, intervention consequences, and target patient groups. METHODS: A literature search of the following databases was performed: Embase, PubMed, Medline, KoreaMed, RISS, KMbase, KISS, NDSL, and KISTI. The search words were “hospital pharmacist”, “clinical pharmacist”, and “Korea”. Articles reporting clinical or economic outcome measures that resulted from hospital pharmacist interventions were considered. Numeric measures for the acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations were subjected to meta-analysis. RESULTS: Of the 1,683 articles searched, 44 met the inclusion selection criteria. Most articles were published after 2000 (81.8%) and focused on clinical outcomes. Economic outcomes had been published since 2011. The interventions were classified as patient education, multidisciplinary team work, medication assessment, and guideline development. The outcome measures were physicians’ prescription changes, clinical outcomes, patient adherence, economic outcomes, and quality of life. The acceptance rate was 80.5% (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: Studies on pharmacist interventions have increased and showed increased patient health benefits and reduced medical costs at Korean hospital sites. Because pharmacists' professional competency would be recognized if the economic outcomes of their work were confirmed and justified, studies on their clinical performance should also include their economic impact.
Humans ; Insurance Benefits ; Korea ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Patient Compliance ; Patient Education as Topic ; Patient Selection ; Pharmacists ; Pharmacy Residencies ; Prescriptions ; Quality of Life

OBJECTIVE: As the demands of healthcare environment change, it is necessary to advance human health care by improving students' essential competencies including knowledge, skills, abilities, inter-professional collaboration and patient centered care. This study identified long term accomplishment and improvement of the essential competencies in clinical pharmacy practice education (CPPE) at Korean hospitals over time. METHODS: This study was conducted for pharmacy students who completed CPPE evaluation related to tertiary hospitals and secondary hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do regional area from 2014 to 2018. RESULTS: Over the past 5 years, overall results of student evaluation on the essential competencies in CPPE at both tertiary and secondary hospitals showed a decreasing trend or did not change. Essential competency in CPPE at tertiary hospitals had been identified as superior on ‘Learn clinical knowledge in the treatment of diseases’ to secondary hospitals [average number of students (%): 210 (72.9%) vs 68 (68.0%)]. On the other hand, essential competencies in CPPE at secondary hospitals had been identified as better at ‘inter-professionals collaborative teamwork and direct patient care’ than tertiary hospitals [average number of students (%): 64 (64.0%) and 56 (56.0%) vs 121 (42.0%) and 90 (31.3%)]. A total of 176 (61.1%) students in tertiary hospitals and 66 (66.0%) in secondary hospitals evaluated that ‘patient-centered care’ education was good. CONCLUSION: In tertiary hospitals, all six essential competency outcomes have not been improved, whereas four essential competency outcomes showed an increasing trend in secondary hospitals. It will be necessary to develop outcome-based CPPE education program to better reflect the essential competencies.
Cooperative Behavior ; Delivery of Health Care ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do* ; Hand ; Humans ; Patient-Centered Care ; Pharmacy* ; Seoul* ; Students, Pharmacy ; Tertiary Care Centers

OBJECTIVE: This study was to investigate and develop a training program that integrated and strengthened clinical competence and capacity of hospital pharmacists which would be implemented at the pharmacy department of Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. METHODS: We assessed the training programs of hospital pharmacists in the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan and compared those of major hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces in Korea. The survey assessed the satisfaction on the current educational programs for pharmacists at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital and a newly designed education program was suggested. RESULTS: The major differences of the programs among the Korean hospitals and Mokdong Hospital were the training period and contents of the entry-level pharmacist education program. The overall satisfaction of the training program was >3 points on 5-Likert scale in the survey. There was no significant difference of the satisfaction level based on the employment period of pharmacists. The pharmacists were in more than 7 training programs of clinical support work. We proposed the clinical support training for the new pharmacists to be separated from orientation and concentrated on actual work duty. In order to improve the competency, it was encouraged to participate the in-house seminar or certify the related fields provided by Korean Society of Health-system Pharmacists. CONCLUSION: The education program was assessed among different countries and hospitals of Korea. We suggested to update education program in the hospital to enhance pharmacists' competency.
Clinical Competence ; Education* ; Employment ; Female ; Great Britain ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Mental Competency ; Pharmacists* ; Pharmacy ; Seoul ; United States

PURPOSE: On November 15, 2012, sales of OTC (Over-The-Counter) drugs began at convenience stores, which changed the accessibility of some drugs. As a result, the exposure and access patterns of these drugs could have changed. In this study, we reviewed the changes in the characteristics of drug poisoning patients because of the reposition of nonprescription drugs according to the revised Pharmaceutical Affairs Act. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate changes in characteristics of drug poisoning patients between 2008 and 2016. A registry was developed by an emergency medical center in a local tertiary teaching hospital, and patients who visited the center were enrolled in this registry. We compared two periods, from 2008 to 2012 (Pre OTC) and from 2013 to 2016 (Post OTC), for type of intoxicant, time from poisoning to visiting the emergency center, intention, psychiatric history, previous suicidal attempt, alcohol status, and emergency room outcomes. The primary outcome was the number of patients who took acetaminophen and NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). Secondary outcomes were ICU admission rate, mortality rate, and number of patients who visited the ER when the pharmacy was closed after taking acetaminophen and NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). RESULTS: Among 1,564 patients, 945 and 619 patients visited the emergency room during pre and post OTC periods. The number of patients with acetaminophen and NSAIDs poisoning decreased from 9.2% to 6.1% (p=0.016). The ICU admission rate and mortality rate in the emergency room did not show significant results in the relevant patient groups, and so was the number of patients visiting ER when the pharmacy was closed taking acetaminophen and NSAIDs. CONCLUSION: Despite the sales of nonprescription drugs at convenience stores, the number of acetaminophen and NSAIDs poisoning patients decreased.
Acetaminophen ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal ; Commerce* ; Emergencies ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Intention ; Mortality ; Nonprescription Drugs* ; Pharmacy ; Poisoning ; Retrospective Studies