Implementación de buenas prácticas de dispensación de medicamentos en el servicio de farmacia de consulta externa del Hospital Básico Baños, provincia de Tungurahua

Abstract

The aim of this research work was to implement good medication dispensing practices in the Outpatient Pharmacy Service of the Hospital Básico Baños, during September 2021-January 2022, by means of a non-experimental, cross-sectional and field research and a descriptive-explanatory study, conducted through the diagnosis of the initial situation of medication dispensing in 306 patients who attended the pharmacy service and the initial evaluation of the processes required for dispensing. A protocol was then developed and implemented, which was socialized to all the pharmacy personnel, as well as to the patients, in order to evaluate the situation after implementation and accept or reject hypotheses with the help of the Chi-square test using the percentages of compliance before and after the investigation. The main results showed that most of the patients were female older adults, who did not verify the medication, expiration dates and did not receive instructions from the pharmacists, and also reported an initial compliance of 51.14% in the processes of reception, analysis and validation, 77.78% compliance in the selection and registration, and 22.22% compliance in dispensing. After the implementation and with the evaluation of results, the improvement of dispensing after implementing the process was demonstrated, since the compliance of 50.38% varied towards 91.07% at the end of the study, concluding that medication dispensing is essential to avoid the appearance of medication-related problems, medication interactions, prescribing and dispensing errors, among others, which can affect patient’s health and safety, so it was recommended to continue the study and constantly update the protocol.