Drug Utilization Pattern During Flood Season In The State Of Kelantan, Malaysia: Perceptions, Experiences And Challenges In Military Field Hospitals
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Date
2021-04
Authors
Yaacob, Mohammad Firdaus
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Every medical mission faces a dilemma on which type of drugs to be brought adequately to cover the whole operation throughout the mission. There are uncertain-ties about the duration of mission, type of drugs to be brought, and difficulties in communication and land transport in the disaster area. Pharmacists will be able to plan which medical stock to bring if they can acquire relevant data regarding the pat-tern of drug utilization from previous missions. The deployment of a military field hospital for the purpose of responding to natural disaster, man-made conflicts, and peacekeeping mission, as well as conventional battlefield, brings grief challenges to healthcare providers. They face many uncertainties in different environments and situations, including the exposure to personal and health threats. This current re-search was conducted in two phases (mixed method: explanatory design). The first phase was a quantitative study, which was a retrospective and descriptive examina-tion of the drug utilisation pattern during the flood season of 2014 at a military field hospital which was deployed at Manek Urai, Kelantan. This study aimed to estimate the drug utilisation pattern during a specific flood season at a military field hospital in the state of Kelantan. The researcher analysed 2771 prescriptions with an average of 103 prescriptions per day. Most of the patients displayed diseases related to the respiratory system (44.9%); skin problem (15.1%); and the digestive system (11.6%). The sum of 8082 drugs was prescribed in the operation, with an average drug(s)-per-encounter of 2.92. The top ten utilised drugs were paracetamol (18.0%), chlor-pheniramine (12.3%), diphenhydramine (11.9%), mefenamic acid (4.1%), diclofenac (4.1%), methyl salicylate (3.3%), neomycin (2.9%) oral rehydration salt (2.5%), magnesium trisilicate (2.3%) and bromhexine (2.1%). Meanwhile, the second phase was qualitative study, where the researcher conducted a semi-structured face to face interview. This study aimed to explore challenges, experiences, and perspectives of healthcare professionals in a military field hospital in various deployments. Thematic content analysis was done and three major themes were followed by subthemes. First, challenges in a Malaysian military field hospital during an operation, which include external factor, operational, human resource, and logistic challenges were identified. Second, the experience of healthcare professionals, before and after a mis-sion, was recorded. Understanding their experience before and after a mission would help organisations to prepare for the future by improving readiness. Finally, the per-ception of a military field hospital operation among healthcare professionals include roles and responsibilities, human resource management, staff‘s motivation, stake-holders‘ view, patients‘ feedback, relevance of deployment, training, logistics sup-port, and future plans. This current study was an attempt to highlight several key evidences to assist the military or any organisation in providing better medical ser-vice in the field for the future.
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Keywords
Drugs