Assessment of patient care indicators in a tertiary hospital in Benin City, Nigeria

Abstract

Rational drug use promotes availability of safe, effective, affordable and quality medicines. It is advocated by World Health Organization (WHO), International Network for Rational Use of Drugs (INRUD) and Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria. Some of the assessment tools of rational drug use are the patient care indicators, hence the patients’ care variables of this study was to assess patient care services in Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin City using WHO/INRUD patient care indicators as standards. A cross sectional study using systematic random sampling method was employed, variables assessed were average consultation time, average dispensing time, percentage of: prescribed drugs actually dispensed, drug packages adequately labeled and patients knowledge about the correct dosage schedule. Data collection form that was used consist of sections A and B, where A is for demographics and B is for patients’ care variables. Descriptive statistical analysis such as mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence interval of the variables were determined where appropriate using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and the variables were compared with the WHO/INRUD optimal values. Average consultation time and dispensing time in minutes were 18.09 ± 6.2 and 4.29 ± 1.9 respectively, while WHO/INRUD optimal values in minutes should not be less than 10 and 1 respectively. Percentage of: drugs actually dispensed, drugs adequately labeled, and patients’ knowledge of correct dosage scheduled were 91.7%, 78.5% and 88.5% respectively, average consultation and dispensing time met the WHO/INRUD standards thus promoting rational drug use where the reference value is 100% for each indicator. Consultation and dispensing practices in terms of percentage of: drugs actually dispensed, drugs adequately labeled, and patients’ knowledge of correct dosage form fell below the optimal levels.