Drug Information Centers Research Paper

462 Words2 Pages
- What are drug information centers? Drug information centers (DICs) are service centers found in hospitals, community pharmacies and patient counseling centers. They provide information for doctors, nurses and patients about drugs, their indications, dosages, contrindications, routes of administration and all other information, based on clinical decisions made by physicians. - What are poison information centers? Poison information centers (PICs) that are located in hospitals are meant to give quick detailed information to the health care team in case of poisoned patients needing urgent intervention. - What is the scope of drug information services? DICs have the responsibility to offer comprehensive and reliable information about drugs to the hospital staff including physicians, nurses and pharmacists. They also answer patients’ questions during ward rounds. Thus, the pharmacists working in DICs must be able to provide correct information and answer questions. - What is the scope of poison information centers? Time is an important factor when it comes to PICs; because a patient's life can be saved if the pharmacists/toxicologists working in PICs are capable of providing full accurate information in a very short time. Unlike DICs whose services may range from casual…show more content…
Physicians need drug information to ensure that they are selecting the most appropriate drug for a patient’s case. Nurses need drug information for maintenance purposes, that is, to make sure that the right drug is administered in the right route at the right time. Patients need drug information to answer their questions such as drug storage, usage, side effects, and drug-drug interactions. Providing this information, the ideal location of DICs for physicians and nurses usages would be departments inside the hospitals, and for the patients usages, it would be within the community pharmacies or independent pharmacy consultant
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