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A community-pharmacy-based callback program for antibiotic therapy
1Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Pharmacy, USA.
Objective:
To develop a telephone callback program to reinforce basic patient counseling given at the time of dispensing.
Design:
At the time each prescription was filled, the pharmacist or pharmacy student recorded the patient's name, telephone number, date of birth, diagnosis, drug regimen, prescriber, relevant concurrent medications, initial comments, and date. Follow-up phone calls were then made when appropriate to assess patient progress in therapy.
Results:
Telephone assessment of 521 patients revealed that while 51.1% reported their condition had improved, 15.1% had worsened. Of the 79 therapeutic failures, 47 patients repeated the initial therapy or received a different antibiotic without another physician visit, 32 were referred back to their physicians, and 5 each resulted from noncompliance or adverse effects.
Conclusions:
A callback program is an effective and inexpensive mechanism for assessing and improving drug therapy outcomes.