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Problems, interventions, and their outcomes during the routine work of hospital pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Abstract

Background In the last 30 years, activities of hospital pharmacists have gone through significant changes. Pharmacists are increasingly involved in patient care. Objectives To explore drug-related and logistic problems, interventions, and their outcomes during routine everyday work of hospital pharmacists. Setting Institute for physical medicine and rehabilitation, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods In the period of January 2013–October 2015 a prospective observational study was performed. Medical doctors, nurses, therapists, and patients addressed pharmacists, face-to-face or by telephone, with drug-related problems (DRPs) and/or logistic issues. Main outcome measure Type of DRP or logistic issue, intervention, outcome, initiator and time spent for solving the problem were documented for each consultation. Results Out of 1515 interventions, 48.8% were aimed at solving DRPs. The most common DRPs were the recommendation of a drug or dose and need for additional information about drugs. Drug price and supply were the most prevalent logistic issues. DRPs were more frequently initiated by medical doctors and required more time to solve the problem compared to logistic issues (Mann–Whitney U test, p ≤ 0.001, respectively). The acceptance rate of interventions to solve DRPs (83.7%) was lower compared to logistic issues (95.2%; p ≤ 0.001). Conclusions Hospital pharmacists were faced with an approximately equal number of DRPs and logistic issues during their routine everyday work. The overall acceptance rate of pharmacists’ interventions was high, and the results of our study indicate that there is a need for more involvement of hospital pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina in clinical activities. Impact on practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dr Miroslav Zotović, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Gordana Ljubojević & Tatjana Bućma

  2. Department of Pharmacokinetics and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 450, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Branislava Miljković, Milica Ćulafić & Sandra Vezmar Kovačević

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Milica Prostran

Authors
  1. Gordana Ljubojević
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  2. Branislava Miljković
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  3. Tatjana Bućma
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  4. Milica Ćulafić
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  5. Milica Prostran
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  6. Sandra Vezmar Kovačević
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Correspondence to Sandra Vezmar Kovačević.

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Funding

This work was conducted as a part of the project No. 175023 funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.

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The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Ljubojević, G., Miljković, B., Bućma, T. et al. Problems, interventions, and their outcomes during the routine work of hospital pharmacists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Int J Clin Pharm 39, 743–749 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-017-0491-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-017-0491-x

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