Clinical pharmacist in outpatient counselling for better therapeutic outcome

Abstract

Tertiary care hospital is a large health care set up which is always engaged in emergency and non-emergency cases. Present study is an observational study done on the patients who visited Jayabharath hospital. This mainly depicts the present patient understanding levels regarding his health status. The study is carried out for the period of four months in the out- patient department. Many of the people visiting the hospital are low at understanding levels. In the present scenario hypertension, diabetes, alcoholism, depression etc are the most prevailing diseases which require regular follow-ups to check for the disease progress. These are the condition which requires regular medications alas! Patients are non-adherent. The reason behind decreases adherence is lack of patient counseling and lack of time which is mandatory in the health care system earlier patients used to get diagnosed and receive medications and return to their homes without proper counseling. And now after the establishment of counseling set up each and every patient is counseled. In the total of 5154 patients 3499 female patients and 1655 male patients approached for patient counseling and benefited with the counseling provided. In these patients 4126 patients are non-adherent and 1028 are adherent .After counseling many of the people themselves came forward to check their progress and got counseled on each of their next visits. Patients are given space to discuss their health problem and got counseled accordingly. Each patient is counseled on various grounds about disease, drugs, life style modifications, diet for their condition. After counseling the status of patient’s adherence improved that total 3074 patients showed adherence to the given medications. Patient counseling is a major requirement for the public to for better understanding and good therapeutic outcome.