Medication therapy management services in emergency and ambulatory care of Gondar University Hospital, northwest Ethiopia

AbstractBackgroundClinical pharmacists (CP) providing medication therapy management (MTM) services have shown significant positive therapeutic outcomes by identifying and resolving patients’ drug therapy problems (DTPs).ObjectiveThus, the aim of the study is to evaluate and characterise the type of interventions provided by CPs through MTM services in emergency and ambulatory settings in Gondar University Hospital (GUH), northwest Ethiopia.MethodsThis is a prospective cross‐sectional study carried out in emergency and ambulatory settings during February–July 2015 at GUH, Ethiopia. The CP interventions documented through MTM services were collected and analysed using SPSS version 22. A p‐value ≤0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.ResultsA total of 182 patients with 335 interventions were recorded, of which the majority were from the ambulatory ward (63.1%) particularly, cardiovascular patients (25.8%). CPs identified at least one DTP per patient, such as ‘need for additional drug therapy’ (30.5%) and ‘unnecessary drug therapy’ (29.5%). The interventions provided by CPs were providing information (32.5%), start/stop medications (25.7%), alteration of duration, frequency and dosage (11.6%). Of 335 interventions, 257 (76.7%) were accepted by physicians. CP interventions were about four times more likely to be accepted by physicians in patients with comorbidities (adjusted odds ratio = 3.70, 95% CI = 1.959–6.99) than those with no comorbidity.ConclusionCP interventions through MTM documentations revealed identification of patient drug‐related problems and have shown acceptance by the majority of physicians. We recommend the use of MTM services in other wards of the GUH.