TITLE:
Community Pharmacy Prescription Screening in the UAE
AUTHORS:
Muaed Alomar
KEYWORDS:
Prescription; Screening; Errors; Medications
JOURNAL NAME:
Pharmacology & Pharmacy,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
16,
2014
ABSTRACT: This study was
designed to investigate and to evaluate pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates-Fujairah-Dibba-Sharjah-Abu Dhabi. The study is concerned with how
pharmacists deal with prescriptions (OTC-Ethical) and their behavior with their
patients in comparison to standards. Objectives: The study’s
objective is to evaluate current pharmacists, who deal with a large number of
patients and affect their lives. Methodology: A descriptive and comparative prospective prescription screening study,
which evaluates data in OTC and ethical prescriptions.1000 prescriptions
(including OTC and ethical) were collected randomly from community and hospital
pharmacies (Fujairah, Dibba, Sharjah and Abu-Dhabi) in the United Arab
Emirates. Data collection was carried out within
a 3-month time period. SPSS (version 16) was used for data entry and analysis in which each prescription was
evaluated using certain parameters. Results: One thousand prescriptions were collected, of which 10.6% were OTC and
89.4% were ethical, which were included in the analysis. Analysis was carried
out to obtain percentages, frequencies and general cross tabs. Conclusion: Our study showed that most patients
received no oral or written information about how to use the medication, how to
manage adverse effects, what precautions to take, or what to do in case of an
overdose. Also, some patients were not asked basic questions by the pharmacist
that were needed to assess them, which is very far from the concept of pharmaceutical
care delivered all over the world.