MEDAN: To further improve the quality of pharmacovigilante’s competences, the University of Sumatera Utara (USU) Hospital made some breakthroughs of which one of them is organizing a Pharmacovigilance workshop.
The workshop is organized under collaboration of USU Hospital and National Agency for Drug and Food Control (POM) in Medan on 21 August 2017. Those attended the event were the Director of USU Hospital dr. Azwan Hakmi Lubis, Sp. A, M. Kes, Director of Medical and Nursing Services, Dr. dr. Nazaruddin Umar, Sp. An, KNA, Director of Training, Research and Cooperation, dr. Sake Juli Martina, Sp. FK, Head of POM RI, Drs. Hanetje Kakerissa, Apt and Director of POM Regional Agency in Medan, Drs. M. Ali Bata Harahap, Apt., M.Kes.
This workshop is aimed at improving the competence and awareness of healthcare workers on pharmacovigilance so it can serve as a guide to monitor the side effects of the drug and report those effects to POM. In the welcoming speeches, Director of University of Sumatera Utara Hospital, dr. Azwan Hakmi Lubis, among others, suggested that pharmacovigilantes should keep on learning in order to improve the quality of their personal competences which eventually lead to quality services offered to patients who are administered to USU Hospital.
The director restated the words of the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Prof. Moh Nasir at the time when he inaugurated USU Hospital on 9 January 2017, where he said that USU Hospital is expected to be able to achieve five-star accreditation as reflected by the best service provided to community. "The services should be good, there should be no nurses shouting at or reprimanding patients, no patients should be left abandoned due to doctor's absence, and the whole SOP must be applied properly," he added.
The presentation on "Pharmacovigilance and patient safety" was delivered by Dr. Jarir At Thobari, MD, MSc., PhD as a speaker from academic field from the Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University (UGM). The next presentation was delivered by the head of Sub Directorate of Surveilance and Risk Analysis of Therapeutic Product and Medical Device and Household Healthcare Supplies, Siti Asfijah A, S.Si., Apt., MMedSc, on "Pharmacovigilance Program in Indonesia." The closing presentation was delivered by dr. Sake Juli Martina, Sp.FK on "Monitoring the Side Effects of Drugs (ESO) at the University of Sumatra Utara Hospital and some constraints faced".
The participants in the workshop showed a great enthusiasm, in addition to acquiring new knowledge on the introduction to Pharmacovigilance, the hospital management now have the idea of how to do the monitoring, handling and reporting of drug side effects at the University of Sumatra Utara Hospital. In her concluding remarks, Siti Asfijah A, S.Si., Apt., M. MedSc and dr. Sake Juli Martina, Sp. FK expressed a hope that this workshop will encourage the implementation of Pharmacovigilance system at the University of Sumatra Utara Hospital to achieve patient safety goals. (humas/rds)