Evaluation of Clinical Pharmacy Services Offered for Palliative Care Patients in Chennai

Abstract

Palliative care is an emerging concept in developing countries like India. North region is having more illiterate people comparing to southern part of India and shows poor palliative care services offered in those regions. Clinical pharmacy services are in developing stages in those regions. The objectives of this study were to create a baseline inventory of clinical pharmacy interventions in palliative care and to assess the perceived importance of interventions made. This was a prospective, single-center characterization study. Interventions were documented from a period of three months (September to November, 2020) and were characterized into predetermined categories and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Physician acceptance rate and intervention rate per patient was calculated. A total of 98 interventions were documented, giving 2 interventions per patient and an acceptance rate of 62%. Discontinuing therapy (35%), initiating therapy (22%), and provision of education/counseling (8%) were most common Interventions. Clinical pharmacy interventions are frequent, and those relating to alterations in drug therapy are most common. The major conclusions from this study are that clinical pharmacy services are being offered for palliative care patients in chennai, with an emphasis on initiating and discontinuing through clinical pharmacist is effective.
 Keywords: Clinical pharmacy; hospice; palliative care; pharmacy; pharmacy education