Good practices in dispensing materials and medicines in a home care in Porto Alegre/RS from a technical-scientific perspective

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the process of dispensing materials and medicines of a home care company in Porto Alegre/RS, in order to create possible actions of good practices to be used during future dispensing processes, as well as to contribute to the improvement of the service provided. Method: The research had a quanti-quali approach: a documentary study, to analyze the occurrence of possible failures/near failures in the records of requisitions for dispensing materials and medicines; and a case study, with the aim of investigating and contributing to possible good practices to be applied during future dispensations. As a data collection instrument, a questionnaire was used, with open, closed and multiple-choice questions, so that the opinions of active Pharmacy professionals could be collected in the processes of dispensing materials and medicines in different existing scenarios. Results: Through this study, it can be seen that during the immersion in the company, there was a low percentage of failures/near misses during the dispensing of materials and medications to patients, and that the most frequent failure/near miss was “professional distraction” of Pharmacy during the dispensing processes”. Conclusion: The development of this research made it possible, from the bibliographic deepening and the analysis of the results, to establish and implement good practices in the processes of dispensing materials and medicines of the studied home care company. Among the best practices, the creation of an awareness booklet for employees who work directly with dispensing was obtained; the entire medication register was updated, using the CD3 method as a basis, “items with similar writing/appearance/sonography were updated; as well as separating it into different shelves and improving the ways of identifying items that had similar labeling or packaging. It is expected that, with these good practices, these professionals can minimize the failures/near failures observed in future dispensations.