DRUG INFORMATION CENTER OF A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL
Medicines Information Service, pharmaceutical services
Purpose: The aim of this work was to identify the characteristics of the drug information provided by Drug Information Center (DIC) of a university hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, identifying the profile of requests from January 2008 to December 2009. Data from requests were collected using a standard form and were stored in an electronic database. The following parameters were evaluated: number of IRs, mean number of monthly IRs, enquirer status, patient specificity of the IR, prescription of the drug enquired about, topic enquired about, mode of receipt of enquiry, mode of reply to enquiry, bibliography used, number of bibliographic references per IR, time frame to reply to enquiry, ATC drug classification. Results: The DIC shows a mean of 5.5 information request (IR)/month in 2008 and 20.3 in 2009. The main requesters were the medical resident (22.7%) in 2008 and the pharmacist (32.5%) in 2009. The most recurrent type of requests was administration pathway/mode (16.8%) in 2008 and stability (13,1%) in 2009. The time frame to reply was not reported in 83.3% in 2008 and in 2009, the time frame to reply was from 1 to 24 hours in 15,6% of the IR. Verbal mode was the most way used to receipt (95.5% in 2008 and 59.8% in 2009) and to reply requests (74.2% in 2008 and 39.5% in 2009). The reference most used to answer requests was the Micromedex© (41.9% in 2008 and 39.2% in 2009). Drugs most commonly asked belong to the ATC’s group J in 2008 (26.4%) and in 2009 was drugs ATC’s group A (23.0%). Conclusions: The parameters evaluated are similar to those of other drug information services in the country located in universities and government institutions.