Page 8 - Management Theory 2023-2024 Edition

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1. Social and Behavioral Aspect of Pharmaceutical Care

Pharmaceutical Care: It is the study of the logical consequences of the evolution of the profession of the
pharmacy.

What is the true meaning of health?

It is a very hard task to define health since it is not limited to a single factor. For example, if we try to define
health by using medical definition, it would not be sufficient since there are sociological, epidemiological, health
planning and physiological definitions as well. In short, it is hard to define health by using a single factor. In
medical terms, health may be defined as the absence of disease or the maintenance of physiological parameters
within accepted norms (e.g. blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol).

Anderson has summarized epidemiological and health planning definitions into five major categories. These
are:

1. Health as a product or outcome (the result of adequate planning and utilization of resources).
2. Health as a potential or capacity to achieve goals.
3. Health as an everchanging dynamic process (the interaction between agent, host, and environment).
4. Health as something experienced by individuals.
5. Health as an attribute of an individual.

According to the World Health Organization, health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-
being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The Quality of Pharmaceutical Care: The quality of pharmaceutical care can be evaluated and examined by
resources such as structure, process, and outcome components.

A. Structure Resources: Structure resources are required to obtain high-level quality care. For example,
one must have laminar flow hood in order to provide the highest quality of parenterals admixtures. It
does not matter how efficient or smart you are, structural resources play an important role to address
the quality of care. Referring to the above example, obviously if you have a home-infusion company
without laminar flow hood, the quality of parenteral preparations will be considered poor. Therefore,
the structural resources would be considered necessary to obtain a high level of quality care.

B. Process Resources: It refers to many activities performed by a pharmacist that are considered a part of
quality care. Referring to the parenteral preparation example; the use of aseptic technique while making
IV admixtures is defined as a process resource.

C. Outcomes: It refers to the experience of a patient who receives the care. The high quality of care is
assumed when the patient experiences the desirable outcomes. Thus, the structure, process, and
outcomes are intended to be part of an integrated model of quality care assessment. Another example
that explains the quality of care is a hospital with a CAT scanner is presumed to render a higher quality
of care than a hospital without one.

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