Community Pharmacy Prescription Screening in the UAE

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate and to evaluate pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates - Fujairah - Dibba - Sharjah-Abu Dhabi. The study is concerned with how pharmacists deal with prescriptions (OTC-Ethical) and their behavior with their patients in comparison to standards. Objectives : The study’s objective is to evaluate current pharmacists, who deal with a large number of patients and affect their lives. Methodology : A descriptive and comparative prospective prescription screening study, which evaluates data in OTC and ethical prescriptions.1000 prescriptions (including OTC and ethical) were collected randomly from community and hospital pharmacies (Fujairah, Dibba, Sharjah and Abu-Dhabi) in the United Arab Emirates. Data collection was carried out within a 3 - month time period. SPSS (version 16) was used for data entry and analysis in which each prescription was evaluated using certain parameters. Results : One thousand prescriptions were collected, of which 10.6% were OTC and 89.4% were ethical, which were included in the analysis. Analysis was carried out to obtain percentages, frequencies and general cross tabs. Conclusion : Our study showed that most patients received no oral or written information about how to use the medication, how to manage adverse effects, what precautions to take, or what to do in case of an overdose. Also, some patients were not asked basic questions by the pharmacist that were needed to assess them, which is very far from the concept of pharmaceutical care delivered all over the world.