Background: Clinical pharmacists and ward pharmacists (avdelningsfarmaceuter) are part of the healthcare team together with physicians and nurses and are responsible for optimizing the use of medicines in patients. Pharmaceutical services are performed at all wards that have pharmacists.
Aim: To evaluate how the healthcare staff at Uppsala University Hospital and the hospital of Enköping experience the pharmaceutical services.
Method: A cross-sectional study that used SurveyMonkey, a web-based survey tool to evaluate pharmaceutical services. The survey was sent out in 2022 by e-mail to all wards that have a ward pharmacist and/or clinical pharmacist.
Results: A total of ninety participants, with the majority being physicians and nurses, responded to the survey. The majority (91%) of the participants agree that pharmacists are easy to get hold of at the ward and 86% of the participants experience a greater workload when the pharmacistsare not present. The participants (89%) also agreed that pharmacists are part of the healthcare team. Most participants (86%) fully agree that patient safety increases and 81% fully agree that quality increases. The results also showed that 76% fully agree that it saves time for healthcare professionals and 70% fully agree that the level of knowledge about medicines increases. The participants would like increased support on evenings and weekends as well.
Conclusion: Most participants feel that pharmacists are easily accessible at the ward and notice that the workload increases when the pharmacists are absent. The pharmacists are perceived as part of the healthcare team and the pharmaceutical services that are offered increase patient safety, quality and saves time for other healthcare staff according to participants.