Chapter 2 - Clinical pharmacy service innovation in an obstetrics and gynecology setting: A case study from Qatar

Abstract

Clinical pharmacy services have evolved rapidly and been developed largely to cover a wide range of patient care settings and therapeutic areas. However, clinical pharmacists’ services in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYNE) setting are not commonly available in many developing countries. In addition, literature describing clinical pharmacists’ role in OB/GYNE settings is limited. This chapter provides a general overview of pharmacists’ role in OB/GYNE and outlines a case study of pharmacy services provided in an OB/GYNE setting in Qatar. The case study provides a description of the activities and responsibilities of the clinical pharmacist and highlights the challenges and opportunities in this setting. The current work retrospectively describes a 2-year period of clinical pharmacy service activities at the OB/GYNE Department at Women’s Hospital (now Women’s Wellness and Research Center) in Qatar. A narrative of the provided services is described through available resources, hospital website and electronic system, and pharmacy key informants. The estimated clinical pharmacist to bed ratio is 1 to 35–40 beds. Patient care-related activities such as medication review, patient education, and multidisciplinary rounds represent the main role of clinical pharmacists. Other nonclinical roles in which clinical pharmacists are actively involved include educational and research activities. Clinical pharmacists are challenged by the high turnover nature of the patient population, variable levels of case complexity, having patients in health transition states, and limited medication safety infrastructure. The clinical pharmacy services are limited to the inpatient setting, while documentation of activities done by clinical pharmacists needs to be enhanced. Providing clinical pharmacy services in the OB/GYNE field is a fruitful initiative in our setting. Having such a special patient population warrants the expansion of clinical pharmacy services in this clinical setting.