Hospital Pharmacists’ Influences on Prescribing in the Western Pacific Region

Abstract

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Basel Statements on the future of hospital pharmacy have provided a united vision for hospital pharmacy practice around the world. These statements have been divided into themes, with Basel Statements 26 to 32 constituting the theme ‘Influences on Prescribing.’ This thesis explores hospital pharmacists’ influences on prescribing based on the Basel Statements in the Western Pacific Region (WPR) using two validated surveys. The first survey focusses on managerial interventions, such as formularies and Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) committees (Basel Statements 26 and 27), while the second focusses on clinical pharmacy services (Basel Statements 28 to 31). Qualitative interviews were also conducted to aid the development of these surveys and to further explore the development of collaborative prescribing by pharmacists in Australian (Basel Statement 32). Nearly 800 hospital pharmacy directors in the WPR responded to the surveys and reported that their hospital pharmacists were routinely influencing prescribing. Internal facilitators (e.g. pharmacy director support) were identified as important factors when initiating new services by hospital pharmacists. However, environmental facilitators (e.g. physician and hospital administrator support) were identified as being crucial for such services to be delivered consistently. This is the first report about hospital pharmacy practices in the WPR. Continued monitoring of such practices can further identify areas for improvement so that limited resources inherent to the hospital system in this region can be prioritised.