Role of PTC In Drug Safety

Role of PTC In Drug Safety


Drug safety is the major area of responsibility of the hospital pharmacist. The increased responsibility also includes the moral, legal and professional obligation of the hospital pharmacist for ensuring safety in the handling and administration of drugs. Since drugs are potent substances; there is a need to create safety awareness in all hospital departments.
  Unfortunately, in our country dispensing the drug “exactly as prescribed by a doctor” is the job of the pharmacist, and the rest of the responsibilities one given to the doctor. PTC can play a major role in ensuring the drug-safety. The following are the guidelines issued by the committee to ensure adequate safety in the handling and administration of drugs: 


1. The hospital must employ a qualified; at least a registered pharmacist with at least B.  Pharmacy degree as the ‘Chief Pharmacist’ and the rest may be at least diploma holders in pharmacy. 


2. The hospital should not permit non-pharmacist personnel to dispense drugs and allied materials. 


3. The hospital must employ a sufficient number of qualified personnel considering the workload of a pharmacist and allow for adequate coverage of the pharmacy seven days a week. 


4. The hospital must provide adequate safe, workspace, and storage facilities for the pharmacy. 


5. The pharmacy should have the equipment necessary for safety and adequately carry out the modern practice of pharmacy.


6. The hospital must have an ‘automatic stop order’ regulation for dangerous drugs, e.g. narcotics hypnotics, anticoagulants, etc. 


7. The hospital should have a firm policy regarding the use of research drugs in the hospital and its clinics. 


8. The hospital should have a drug formulary which periodically revised and kept up to date. 


9. The hospital should not permit any person other than a registered pharmacist into the pharmacy “outside its working hours”. 


10. The poisons and poisonous materials should be adequately separated from nonpoisonous materials in the pharmacy and the wards, etc. 


11. The external use preparations should be separated from internal use medications in the pharmacy and the wards, etc. 


12. The pharmacy-manufactured products for patient's use if any, must have adequate during the processing and also in the final products. 


13. The hospital should provide or to the chief pharmacist, sufficient help to permit him to engage in a teaching program to familiarize the nursing and resident staff with new drugs and to teach the student nurses the basic course of pharmaceutical mathematics and pharmacology. 


14. All nursing drug statistics should be periodically inspected to remove deteriorated and outdated drugs as well as to check all labels for legibility. 


15. The pharmacy should have an adequate reference library that contains texts on pharmacology, toxicology, and posology and journals containing adequate information on newer developments in the pharmaceutical world. 

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