Pharmacist's time spending to manage patients with asthma or COPD in an outpatient clinic in Thailand

Introduction: Pharmacist has many roles in an asthma and COPD clinic such as providing drug information and solving patient9s problems. A pharmacist spends much time but little is known about a pattern of time spending in the clinic. Objective: This study aimed to describe a pattern of pharmacist9s time spending to manage patients with asthma or COPD. Methods: A prospective descriptive study was conducted in an outpatient clinic in Thailand. Patients visited the clinic from August to December 2013 were included. Videotaping was recorded the pharmacist9s intervention and time spending. The records were reviewed to evaluate time spending for assessing patient, providing drug information, solving patient9s problems, and providing other services. Descriptive statistics were used. Time spending was presented as median ± inter-quartile range. Results: A total of 145 patients were included. An overall median time spending was 8.3±4.2 minutes/patient. Of the time, a pharmacist spent 1.68±1.88 minutes for assessing patient, 1.73±2.6 minutes for providing drug information, 1.85±1.9 minutes for solving patients9 problem, and 1.92±1.7 minutes for providing other services. A pharmacist spent 9.1±3.4 minutes for a patient with drug-related problem (DRP), while 6.4±3.3 minutes for a patient without DRP (p Conclusion: Pharmacist9s time spending should be on case-by-case basis. Patients with DRP or asthma patients who cannot control their disease stage need more time to provide pharmaceutical care services than others.