Browsing by Author "Coleman-Sarfo, Kate"

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    Out patient counselling at 37 military hospital dispensary
    (2004) Coleman-Sarfo, Kate
    A six-week study was carried out at the Outpatient department at the 37 Military Hospital to ascertain if: (i) Patients collecting their medications receive information and counseling about the medication they are receiving (ii) The contact time between dispensing officer and patient is adequate. (iii) The drugs are properly labeled. The type of study here is a prospective and descriptive one, which seeks to assess current practice. The research instrument used was a questionnaire and a simple random sampling procedure was employed. The sample size included 300 patients with questionnaire administered to 20 patients every other day for six weeks between 9am-2pm. The study was conducted at the out patient counter of the dispensary at the 37 Military Hospital. Main findings after the research showed clearly that the dispensary staff were not imparting adequate information and counseling to patients about the drugs they handed over to the patients. Also the contact between the staff and the patient was woefully inadequate. Labeling of the medications which was so vital, was not done properly according to set standards and only 25% of envelopes had the patients name written on them, 70% had the generic name written, 7 1.0% had the quantity of dispensed drug written. 75% did not have any special instructions and 95% did not have any storage suggestions on envelope. study also showed that, the more drugs prescribed on each prescription, the more difficult it was for patients to recall instructions and information given to them. If patients on the average had at least 2 minutes contact time with dispensing officer, and received dispensed medicines that were properly labeled then patient care at 37 military hospital can be greatly enhanced. In conclusion, it appears about 60.0% did not receive information and counseling about medication they are receiving. Also it seems the contact time between staff and patient was not adequate with about only % claiming they had 2 minutes and above dispensing interaction time (contact time).