Regular inspection and committing major malpractices: Case of Pakdasht pharmacies
Abstract
Background: It is necessary to regulate the pharmacies’ services to maintain their qualities for providing services to patients. One side that should be considered is to prevent pharmacy malpractices. Depending on the types and recurrences of illegal acts, regulatory affairs and enforcements could reduce malpractices in health care providers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of pharmacy inspection.Method: In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of pharmacy inspection on preventing probable malpractices. Data were collected from inspection forms provided by Vice-Chancellor’s Office in Food and Drug Supervision in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and were filled by inspectors between January 2013 and April 2014. Seven major illegal acts are considered in this study including pharmacist absences during the pharmacy opening hours, delivery of Non Prescription Drugs (NPDs) without pharmacist supervision, existence of expired drugs in pharmacy, existence of counterfeit drugs or cosmetics in pharmacy, existence of any illegal narcotic or amphetamine drugs without Drug-Sale-License, inappropriate drug storage condition, and insufficient consideration in Galenic formulation. The inspections were assessed in all 26 private pharmacies in Pakdasht, Tehran, Iran.Results: The results showed that the scores of second inspection in quantitative assessment became better than the first one. The average score of existence of illegal drugs in the second inspection was soared to 89.92 from 58.11 in the first inspection. According to the qualitative assessment, the number of malpractices, except delivery of prescription drugs and inappropriate storage condition had decreased entirely from the first to the last inspection. Existence of illegal narcotics and amphetamines in pharmacy reduced from 13% to zero.Conclusion: Pharmacy inspection could reduce malpractices if it is performed routinely and the penalties are strict and suitable.Dadfar, H. and S. Brege. “Differentiation by improving quality of services at the last touch point: The case of Tehran pharmacies.” International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences. (2012) 4(4): 345-63.
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| Issue | Vol 3 No 1/2 (2017) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| malpractice Regularity affair Inspection Pharmacy | ||
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