Abstract

Background: Ward-based pharmacists have fostered patient-centered care. In 2011, the Pharmacy Council of Thailand established the standard criteria for pharmacist practitioners. Nevertheless, Thailand still needs to clarify the perceptions and expectations of ward-based pharmacists’ roles. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the perceptions and expectations of ward-based pharmacists’ roles among Thailand’s hospital pharmacists. Materials and Methods: The method was a cross-sectional study conducted with a director of the pharmacy department or a representative among tertiary and secondary hospitals under the supervision of the Ministry of Health in Thailand. The questionnaires were divided into four sections: the first section covered information about the respondents, the second section covered information about the participants’ perceptions, and the third section covered three dimensions: workload and responsibilities, patient care process, and patient outcomes. The last section covered the pharmacist required for the ward-based pharmacist position. Survey data were collected between February and March 2022. A descriptive statistical analysis was used to summarize the results. Results: Out of 126 responders, 57.1% (72/126) perceived that the ward-based pharmacist was advising patients about special techniques for the use of drugs and monitoring adverse drug reactions (100%) (72/72). The role in workload, responsibilities, and the patient care process were almost all strongly expected levels. However, therapeutic drug level monitoring was the least common, at 79.2% (57/72). The three most likely expectations were reducing the cost of hospitalization, length of stay, and mortality rate. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that hospital pharmacists were highly aware of and expected to play the roles of ward-based pharmacists. This implies a demand for ward-based pharmacists in Thai hospitals.