Effects of Using Guideline for Home Visits for Family Pharmacists of Samutsakhon Hospital

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the effect of home visit using guideline for pharmacists at Samutsakhon Hospital on the patient’s need for home visit. Methods: This quasi-experiment study was the second part of the research and development study to develop the guideline for home visits for family pharmacists conducted from June to December 2015. Fifteen patients with level A of need for home visit (i.e., the highest need) and level B were subject to recruitment. Drug related problems and sufferings were considered in grading these need levels. After home visits, level of home visit need was re-evaluated. Findings on individual patients, as well as, frequency with percentage were presented. Results: All 15 patients were in level A of home visit need. Most were transferred for home visit by pharmacists in in-patient pharmaceutical care service (11 patients). The majority were female (60.00%), married (46.67%), having no job (80.00%), using universal care scheme (93.33%), having caregiver (60.00%), with a mean age of 61 years. Of a total of 47 home visits, 3 home visits were made per patient with a range of 1 to 7 visits. At the end of the study, the majority of the patients stayed at level A (60.00%), while the rest 40.00% were alleviated to level B. Conclusion: Home visits by family pharmacists using the guideline established for Samutsakhon Hospital were executable and could alleviate the need level from A to B in 40% of patients. Future research with a larger sample size and a longer follow-up period should be conducted. Keywords: family pharmacist, guideline for home visit, drug related problems, drug related sufferings