Department of Pharmacy Practice, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal
Provider based continuous evaluation of the information services is essential to upgrade the quality of poison information services.
A retrospective evaluation of the poison information service was done from request and documentation forms over a period of three years from January 2002 to December 2004. The quality of all the poison information services from the provider's perspective was analysed using the guidelines from DSE/WHO seminar. The evaluation was based on parameters like background of enquirers and patients, the time frame to reply, mode of receipt, adequacy of references consultation, meeting the inquirer's need, and follow-up. Queries after evaluation were scored from poor (less than 50%) to excellent (80% or more). The grades assigned were either poor (if less than 50%), fair (if between 50-60%), good (if between 60-70%), very good (if between 70- 80%), or excellent (if 80% or more). The minimum acceptable grade was considered to be 60%.
A total of 126 poison information queries were obtained in eight categories. 115 queries were received from physicians, 5 from paediatricians, and one each from a psychiatrist, anaesthetist, oral surgeon, and forensic expert, while two calls were from patients themselves. Quality control tests showed that the majority of the poison information (n=103) provided, rated excellent (with a rating of 80% or more); 21 rated good (with a rating of 70-80%), while 2 were good (with a rating of 60-70%).
This study shows that a clinical pharmacy department with essential resources can efficiently provide poison information services.
