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Community pharmacy-based SOAP notes documentation

Sapkota B, Shrestha R, Giri S

Medicine, 2022

400 participants

Abstract

There is still scarce and sparse evidence regarding documentation of the subjective, objective, assessment and plan (SOAP) note in community pharmacies despite its long implementation history in clinical and academia settings. Hence, we aimed to document and maintain SOAP notes for individual patients visiting community pharmacies for their health problems. We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study at 2 community pharmacies in Nepal from July to December 2019. We recruited 400 patients from all age groups suffering from any health problem using simple random sampling. Patients' subjective complaints were retrieved from their respective prescriptions and verified by interviewing them. Data were collected on the standard format of the SOAP notes and all data related to patients' subjective and objective evaluations, and assessments and plans were descriptively analyzed with R programming 4.0.3. Drug interaction profile was checked with the Medscape Drug Interaction Checker. A total of 87 (21.8%) patients aged 42 to 51 years participated in the research, out of whom 235 (58.8%) were female, 208 (52%) illiterate, 359 (89.8%) were facing mild polypharmacy, and 40 (9.9%) were suffering from joint, leg, ankle, and knee pain. There were 41 minor (11.4%), 130 major (32.7%), and 3 severe (0.9%) drug interaction cases (i.e., medication-related problems), with 11 (2.8%) occurring between amlodipine and metformin, which required close monitoring. There were 226 (56.5%) cases…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 400 participants or records.

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