Identifying, resolving and documenting drug therapy problems by clinical pharmacists in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria

Identification and resolution of Drug therapy problems (DTPs) are the bedrock of clinical pharmacy practice. Documentation of these activities can be used to improving patient outcomes. This study sought to describe the identification, resolution and documentation of DTPs by clinical pharmacists at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin City, Edo state. This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted in thirteen pharmacy departments of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo state. All DTPs identified and interventions made between April 2015 and April 2024 were extracted. Data were analyzed descriptively with SPSS version 22. A total of 986 drug therapy problems were identified during the study period. Two hundred and nineteen (22.2%) and 267 (31.7%) of these DTPs were identified in paediatric and adult populations respectively. Two hundred and eighteen (22.1%) and 286 (29.0%) of the DTPs documented were for male and female patients respectively. Dosage too high was the most prevalent DTP 363 (36.8%), while inappropriate adherence was the least prevalent [15(1.5%)] of the DTPs. Of the 986 DTPs documented. Prescribers were contacted 851 times, and they accepted 847 of the pharmacist’s recommendations, yielding a 99.5% acceptance rate. Pharmacists were involved in identification and resolution of DTPs. The DTPs documented for about a decade in the studied tertiary hospital were surprisingly low (averaging about 100 annually) revealing poor documentation practice among pharmacists. This emphasizes the need for hospital administrators to implement standardized documentation protocols and incorporate digitalization of the process.