Impacts of Pharmacists-Managed Outpatient Clinic in patients with
Hepatitis C virus infection: A Retrospective Study in China
Abstract
Objective: Pharmacists are health care professionals who are actively
involved in identifying and solving drug-related problems (DRPs) in
patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, the
effectiveness of pharmaceutical services at outpatient clinic for
patients with HCV infection have not been reported in China. This study
aims to describe and investigate the impacts of pharmacists-managed
outpatient clinic in patients with HCV infection. Methods: We conducted
a descriptive and retrospective study between May 2020 and April 2022.
In order to give full play to the efficacy of direct-acting antivirals
(DAAs), we established a referral process for HCV patients with DAAs.
Doctors prescribed DAAs for HCV-infected outpatients, and then
transferred them to the outpatient clinic managed by pharmacists.
Pharmacists cooperated to complete the pharmaceutical monitoring of DAAs
treatment for patients. The pharmacist conducted a comprehensive
evaluation of the patient’s medication and developed planned
intervention measures based on identified DRPs. Results: A total of 473
eligible patients participated in 851 pharmaceutical care. A total of
518 DRPs were identified (an average of 1.1 per patient). Treatment
effectiveness (48.8%) was the most common DRP. The most commonly
recommended intervention was changing the drug (18.3%). There were
97.1% patients accepting the interventions and 93.05% patients
completely implemented. The overall sustained virologic response at week
12 posttreatment (SVR12) rate was 98.5% (466/473). Conclusions: We
confirmed that pharmacists had a valuable role to perform pharmacy
services for HCV-infected outpatients. The intervention of pharmacists
is effective in solving the DRPs and saving drug costs