Role of pharmacist led home medication review in community setting and the preparation of medication list

Abstract

BackgroundHome Medicines Review (HMR) is a patient-focused, meticulous and collaborative health care service provided in the community setting, to enhance quality use of medicines and patient understanding. This service is framed to assist the patients living at home to augment the benefit of their medication regimen and prevent medication related problems. ObjectivesThis study was conducted to identify, prevent and resolve potential medication-related problems, optimise pharmacotherapy and assist in achieving better health outcomes for patients at home. MethodsIt was a cross-sectional interventional study conducted for a period of 6 months in 85 patients in different regions of Malappuram district where discrepancies of the prescriptions, knowledge gap of the patients, use of other medication and storage conditions of medicines were evaluated. ResultsData from a total of 85 patients were collected among which 48 were males (56%) followed by females (n=37, 44%) with a mean age group of 40–59years (47%). The patient had a lack of knowledge in factors like the name of the drug (34%), the reason for taking the medication (27%), etc. Drug interaction was the main discrepancy found in majority of the prescriptions. Around 32% of the population experienced ADR on taking the medication and among the patients interviewed, 64% of them didn’t use any OTC drugs along with prescribed drugs. Around 60 of the interviewed patients stored multiple drugs in a same container and 52 of the patient’s medicines had illegible labels. ConclusionThe study clearly showed that the subjects were unaware of the HMR service and yet majority were accepting the program.