Abstract

The impact of educational interventions on physicians by clinical pharmacists for early switchover of parenteral drugs to oral therapy was evaluated prospectively in 340 patients receiving parenteral medications in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Patients switched over from parenteral to oral therapy within the appropriate time increased from 48.2% in the preintervention group to 78.8% in the postintervention group (p=0.000). Significant reduction in duration of hospital stay (p=0.005) and mean cost of therapy (p=0.021) was observed in patients in the postintervention group. The mean knowledge score obtained by physicians increased in the postintervention phase (p=0.000). Educational interventions on the physicians by clinical pharmacists and implementation of locally developed guidelines can facilitate early switchover of parenteral medications to oral therapy. This, in turn, can reduce duration of parenteral medication use, cost of drug therapy, length of hospital stay and, eventually, the total cost of treatment.