Pharmacotherapic monitoring in the public health system: how is the quality of registration and resolution of problems related to medicines?

Abstract

Irrational use of medicines is a public health problem. The pharmaceutical professional incorporated into health teams has undoubted potential to improve drug use, reducing the risks of morbidity and mortality and the costs of pharmacotherapy. This is a descriptive study whose objective was to analyze the quality of registration and resolution of Drug-Related Problems (DRP) of patients treated at a Clinical Pharmacy service in the Public Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS) in Divinópolis- MG. Records were analyzed in which pharmacists registered attendances between January 2016 and November 2017 at the Outpatient Clinic of the municipality, which underwent at least one consultation and two returns. Demographic data, number of diseases, number of drugs used, DRP identified, interventions performed and their resolution were collected. During the analyzed period, 443 patients were attended and 71 met the eligibility criteria. The patients attended had a mean age of 57 years (±16), the majority (67.60%) being female. We found 209 morbidities, with an average of 2.94 morbidities/patient. The most prevalent were systemic arterial hypertension (n = 50; 70.42%); type II diabetes mellitus (n = 46; 64.78%); dyslipidemia (n = 37; 52.11%) and type I diabetes mellitus (n = 10; 14.08%). Among the 459 drugs used (mean 7.7 per patient), 303 DRP were found, which 71 (32.37%) showed resolution, and 220 interventions were performed, with an average of 0.73 interventions per DRP. There is a precariousness in the quality of the records, which affects the analysis of resolution of the DRP.