Influence of pharmacist–doctor communication on pediatric antibiotic prescriptions

Objectives: The purpose of the research was to describe drug-related issues and assess the effect of communication between pharmacists and physicians on decreased prescription drug-related problems in pediatric antibiotics. Methods: Intervention was carried out in the form of pharmacist discussing information-related issues about drugs with physicians prescribing antibiotics to pediatric patients. The research sample included 338 prescription sheets on pediatric outpatient use of antibiotics, and a prospective design was used. Analysis of the data was carried out in the form of a frequency distribution and bivariate analysis Wilcoxon test. Results: The results showed that drug-related problems were recorded on 62.22% of the 338 prescription sheets. The biggest problems that occurred had to do with the effectiveness of therapy (P1; 79.3%) and cost issues (P1; 20.7%). In terms of P1, drug-related problems involved excessive frequency of drug administration (80.1%), inappropriate drug dose selection (17.2%), drug interactions (9.6%), inadequate drug selection (12.2%), a subtherapeutic dose (4.1%), and excessive drug dose (0.5%). For P1, therapy cost problems were a lack of indication for the drug (84.1%) and improper drug selection (15.9%). Conclusions: The influence of pharmacist–physician communication concerning the reduction of drug-related problems for pediatric outpatient prescriptions was statistically significant (p<0.05). Ultimately, communication between pharmacists and physicians can reduce drug-related problems by 22.9%.