DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (SOP) FOR THE FIRST DISPENSING.

ROSARIO

Encuentro; II Reunión Internacional de Ciencias Farmacéuticas ? RICiFa 2012; 2012

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS BIOQUÍMICAS Y FARMACEUTICAS - UNR

Introduction Dispensing is the pharmacist´s professional service directed to ensure, after individual assessment, that patients receive and use medications according to clinical needs, in the precise doses, during the appropriate time period, with the correct information for use, and in accordance with current legislation (1-3). For proper exercise, standard operating procedures (SOPs) should be used, and a documented record of the activity performed (1,2,4,5). The first dispensing or the start of a treatment refers to situations where the patient is going to use a medication for the first time (1,2). The objectives of this work were: ? To develop a SOP in addressing the first dispensing. ? To evaluate the results obtained during the initial phase of the implementation of the SOP (pilot phase). Materials and methods A literature review was made to develop two proposals for SOPs with their corresponding registry tools. It was followed by a workshop between all practicing pharmacists, with the objective to analyze the proposals submitted and agree upon a single SOP with its corresponding registry tool. The initial phase covered a period of one month (August 2012), using the SOP and recording the proceedings and the total of dispensations made. Drug interactions between the new medicines and those who routinely used the patient were detected using the Drug Interaction Checker software available in: www.medscape.com. Results A SOP approved by the practicing pharmacists together with an instrument of individual record of each event is presented to address the first dispensing.. This instrument contains a section that remains in the pharmacy (with the aim to record and later evaluate the service) and another section that is delivered to the patient, with the stamp and signature of the pharmacist, along with adequate information for the proper use of medicines. During the first phase 1297 dispensations were carried out, 11,8 % of them (n= 153) belonged to the initiation of the treatment. A 3,3 % of the patients of first dispensing did not know aspects related to the features of the new treatment, while 20,9% did not know how to use them correctly. The 28,1 % of the patients reported they do not know how long they should use the new drugs. A 12,4% of the start dispensations presented potential drug interactions with other medications that were concomitantly used by the patients. Conclusions The development of a SOP for the first dispensing and their subsequent implementation evidenced that a significant percentage of patients assisted do not know the proper way to use the drugs as well as the length of time during which they must be used (4,6). If these aspects are not adequately addressed by the pharmacist, it could trigger drugs related problems (1-3,5). Therefore, highlighting the role of the SOPs in the standardization of the activities, along with the registration and evaluation of the services lead to improvements in the quality of pharmaceutical care provided. These data emphasize the necessity to continue with the development and implementation of a SOP to those patients who use drugs for chronic conditions.