National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH Hospitals in Saudi Arabia 2016-2017: Clinical Pharmacy Services

Purpose: To explore National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH hospitals in Saudi Arabia 2016-2017: Clinical pharmacy services. Methods: It is a 4-months cross-sectional National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The study consisted of two parts; the demographic information and the second part contained eighty-five questions divided into nine domains drove from American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists (ASHP), Saudi Pharmaceutical Society (SPS) survey, and the international standard of Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation. The parts were pharmacy management and resources, prescribing and medication control, preparation of medications and dispensing, Computerized and pharmacy technology, clinical pharmacy services, drug monitoring and patient's education, Pharmacy inventory control and stock management, Pharmacy education and training, and pharmacy total quality management. An electronic questionnaire distributed to the one hundred eighty-five directors of pharmacies at MOH hospitals. The study discussed and analyzed National Survey of Pharmacy Practice at MOH hospitals in Saudi Arabia: Clinical Pharmacy Services. Results: The survey distributed to 185 of hospitals, the rate of reply, was 105 (56.75%) hospitals. The most clinical services provided at the hospitals was Medications Errors preventing & monitoring (3.63), followed by Patient Counseling (3.22) and Provider of Drug Information (3.18). The most of the clinical pharmacist regularly provided to patients was Preparation of written medication histories when the patient admitted to the hospital 35 (33.3%) and Counseling of patients on their medications either during their stay or at discharge 33 (31.4%). The Decentralized pharmaceutical services; with distributive functions by a central pharmacy 59 (56.2%) and Centralized pharmaceutical services with pharmacists occasionally visiting patient-care areas, but not on a daily basis 31 (29.5%). The pharmacy actively participates in the Antibiotics Team (3.26), followed by Pain Management Team (2.08) and IV Therapy Team (2.02). Conclusion: Clinical pharmacy services seldom implemented at MOH hospitals. The clinical pharmacy services are high demand for all medical and surgical for pediatric, adults, and geriatrics patients. Targeting to very comprehensive clinical pharmacy education and training is with scholarship of all required clinical pharmacy specialties is highly recommended.