Tharmalinga Sharma Jegath Janani
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Rafaideen Risla
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Lelwala Guruge Thushani Shanika
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Nithushi Rajitha Samaranayake
Abstract
Background: Drug Related Problems (DRPs) in prescriptions could harm patients.Purpose: To assess, the prevalence of DRPs in prescriptions, and the ability of community pharmacists to detect and correct DRPs in prescriptions dispensed in a selected community pharmacy. Methods: A prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a selected community pharmacy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where one researcher reviewed for DRPs in systematically selected prescriptions (N=400), and another directly observed the proportion of DRPs identified by community pharmacists in the same set of prescriptions. Actions taken by pharmacists on resolving DRPs were also documented. DRPs were classified according to a slightly modified version of Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe classification V8.01. Results: Among 1986 drugs, 1211 DRPs were identified by researchers, and 441 by community pharmacists (N=24). Drug selection (N=15), dose selection (N=817), duration of treatment (N=128), incomplete prescriptions (N=128), and in-house classification such as outdated prescriptions, missing unit of measurements, and ambiguous names of medicines that cannot be read by both community pharmacists and researcher (N=122) were the most common DRPs identified by researchers, of which only 1 (p<0.001), 394 (p<0.001), 13 (p=0.006), 5 (p<0.001), and 27 (p<0.001) respectively were identified by pharmacists. DRP identification by researcher and pharmacist did not significantly differ for inappropriate drug form (p=0.550). Among 441 DRPs identified by pharmacists, 406 were corrected by them (p=0.92). Most DRPs were self-resolved by pharmacists themselves (366/406) (p=0.90), while patients were also sent back to prescriber (14/406) (p=0.03) and refused to dispense drugs (9/406) (p=0.02).Conclusion: Among DRPs frequently observed in prescriptions in the community, pharmacists missed some, including incomplete prescriptions that had potential to harm. Pharmacist resolved most of the DRPs detected.