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Table 2 Overview of recorded consultations and prescriptions at both sites

From: Strengthening pharmaceutical systems for palliative care services in resource limited settings: piloting a mHealth application across a rural and urban setting in Uganda

 

Urban hospice

Rural clinic

Patient data capture

Time period of data collection

197 days (Sep 14 – Mar 15)

297 days (Aug 14 – May 15)

Number of patients recorded on application

n = 381

n = 74

Number of consultations recorded

n = 474

n = 88

Number of patients with 1 consultation

n = 314

n = 60

Number of patients with 2 consultations

n = 44

n = 13

Number of patients with 3 consultations

n = 18

n = 1

Number of patients with 4 consultations

n = 5

n = 0

Median initial pain score (1 - 5)

3 (n = 57; 12 % of consultations)

3 (n = 69; 78 % of consultations)

Mobile phone contact details recorded

n = 68 (18 % of patients)

n = 41 (55 % of patients)

Prescribing data

Median number of prescriptions per consultation

n = 2(range = 8)

n = 0 (range = 4)

Number of consultations with no prescription

n = 68

n = 57

Number of consultations with 1 drug prescribed

n = 58

n = 12

Number of consultations with 2 drugs prescribed

n = 134

n = 14

Number of consultations with 3 drugs prescribed

n = 99

n = 3

Number of consultations with >3 drugs prescribed

n = 119

n = 2

Number of individual drugs prescribed at site

n = 474a

n = 57

Morphine prescribing

Total morphine prescriptions (% of all consultations)

n = 281 (59.03 %)

n = 26 (29.21 %)

Morphine (oral or MST) only

n = 65 (13.66 %)

n = 11 (12.34 %)

Morphine and laxative

n = 216 (45.33 %)

n = 15 (16.85 %)

Laxative only

n = 23 (4.83 %)

n = 0 (0 %)

Prescription(s) not including morphine or laxative

n = 172 (36.13 %)

n = 62 (69.66 %)

Proportion of all morphine prescriptions with laxative

76.87 %

57.69 %

Proportion of all morphine prescriptions without laxative

23.13 %

42.31 %