A drug related problem is an event or circumstance involving drug therapy that actually or potentially interferes with desired health outcomes. To assess, classify and identify drug related problems among heart failure patients admitted to the medical ward of the Ambo University Referral Hospital. This prospective study included 124 eligible heart failure patients consecutively admitted to the Ambo University Referral Hospital. Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe Foundation used to construct and classify a drug related problem followed by a consensus discussion with a clinical pharmacist team and medical internists or General Practitioners. Categorical data were expressed in numbers and percentages. Continuous variables were expressed in means and standard deviation. A total of 434 drugs were used with a mean of 3.5 drugs per patient. The study identified 193 drug-related problems from 91 (73.4%) study participants. The average number of drug related problems per patient was 1.6. The principal drugs associated with DRPs were enalapril (34.2%) and furosemide (31.1%). The most common category of drug related problem identified was lack of treatment effectiveness, 138 (71.5%). Of these, suboptimal effect of drug treatment (34.7%) and untreated indications (17.6%) were the leading drug-related problems. The most common causes of drug-related problems were dose too low and inappropriate drug according to the guidelines, 32.6%, and 11.9%, respectively. Drug-related problem is prevalent in our setting. Lack of treatment effectiveness is the most common category of the problem. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and diuretics were the most implicated in drug-related problem.

Keywords: Heart failure, Drug-related problem, Ambo University Referral Hospital