Privileges of Pharmacist in Saudi Arabia: Clinical and Administrative Activities

Objectives: To explore the privileges of pharmacists through the clinical and administrative activities in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a 4-month cross-sectional survey regarding clinical and administrative privileges of pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. The study consisted of two parts: the first part collected demographic information and the second part comprised a questionnaire with 28 questions divided into 4 domains. The questions were derived from previous literature and from the regulatory standards of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). The four domains were as follows: privilege management and resources, pharmacist prescribing and therapeutic interchange, clinical and administration privilege and drug monitoring and healthcare education. The responses were obtained using a 5-point Likert response scale system with close- and open-ended questions. The survey questionnaire was distributed in an electronic format to the director of pharmacy of each hospital in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we analyzed pharmacist’s privilege in Saudi Arabia with regard to the clinical and administrative activities. All data were obtained through the Survey Monkey system. Results: The survey was distributed to 36 hospitals. The average score of pharmacist privilege in the hospital pharmacy practice program was 3.16 (63.13%). Most of the pharmacy practice programs having pharmacist privilege were nonformulary requests (3.69 (73.8%)), patient counseling (3.60 (72%)) and medication errors preventing and monitoring (3.58 (71.6%)). The average score of clinical privilege for a pharmacist was 2.95 (58.97%). The maximum score of clinical privileges for a pharmacist were to answer questions from all healthcare professionals (3.83 (76.6%)), to decrease drug dosing (3.47 (69.4%)) and to change drug strength (3.4 (68%)). The average score of pharmacist administration privilege was 3.14 (62.75%). The administration privileges for pharmacists were to conduct educational courses (3.81 (76.2%)) followed by to setup vision and mission (3.71 (74.20%)) and to conduct training programs (3.64 (72.80%)). Conclusion: The clinical and administrative privileges of a pharmacist is not well established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Most of the clinical and administrative privileges were regular and primary duties. Therefore, it is important to update the policies and procedures of clinical and administrative privileges given to a pharmacist with more engagement in the pharmacy practice. These practices are highly recommended in order to improve pharmaceutical care implementation at hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.