Health Management Papers & Publications

Background and Objectives: The outpatient department (OPD) pharmacy is a section of the hospital pharmacy that helps patients obtain their prescribed medications. However, on-time delivery of medications and patients’ convenient access to the pharmacy are the hallmarks of a well-designed health-care system. Therefore, he aim of this study was to develop a pharmacy triage tool to improve patient flow and reduce waiting time in the fourth-floor pharmacy at Hamad General Hospital (HGH). Methods: This prospective and observational study was conducted on 14,740 patients who attended the OPD pharmacy (HGH, Qatar) between January 15, 2022 and March 15, 2022. This prospective and observational study consisted of three periods: A root cause analysis, a pre-intervention period of 1 month (January 15, 2021–February 14, 2021) and an intervention period of 1 month (15 February–15 March). We developed a pharmacy triage tool to improve patient flow and reduce waiting time by identifying patients who need their medications to be dispensed, as well as classifying patients to get the right patient to the right place and implementing a patient flow system to improve efficiency spends in pharmacy queues. Results: The results of this study showed that the use of the triage system in the pharmacy reduced the average waiting time of patients from 50 min to 15 min. The results were statistically significant at p<0.0001. Conclusion: We concluded that applying the pharmacy triage tool improved quality of services in health-care systems and decreased waiting time in the OPD pharmacy. The pharmacy triage tool is a new approach to enhancing the quality of healthcare and leads to an increase in the efficiency of OPD pharmacies.

Karishma

Introduction: In Bangladesh, diabetes mellitus (DM) is a significant health concern contributing to numerous complications that enhance the mortality risk. This study aims to examine the impact of lifestyle patterns, socioeconomic conditions, and comorbidities among diabetic patients to establish valid associations between variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 450 patients with diabetes mellitus at the outpatient department of different hospitals in Bangladesh. Data collection was done through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Results: The study analyzed sociodemographic and lifestyle traits among diabetic patients, categorized by gender and results were based on unadjusted analysis. Men had a higher prevalence of being married (99.4%) compared to women (97.9%). Women were more common in rural areas (67.5%) and less likely to own smartphones (12.3%, vs 24.7% for men). More women were overweight (31.2%) and owned house (92.1%). Clinical symptoms showed no significant gender associations except for headaches, more prevalent in women (OR=0.65; p=0.034). Women had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease (48.3%, vs 35.4% for men, OR=0.59; p=0.009), while kidney dysfunction was more prevalent in men (16.5%, vs 9.6% for women, OR=1.86; p=0.032). Allergic problems (20.5%, OR=0.40; p=0.014) and asthma (5.5%, OR=0.22; p=0.029) were more common in women. No association was observed in the occurrence of ulcer with the respondents’ gender. Regarding lifestyle, 50.7% of respondents consumed rice more than once daily, 71.8% did not smoke, and most (59.1%) had a normal BMI. Conclusions: Based on our study findings, men should focus on renal health by refraining from high-glycemic meals, while women should concentrate on managing their weight and cardiovascular health by utilizing modern healthcare facilities.

Arafat Hassan Razon