[Outlining passive information offered by the Drug Information Center of the Federal University of Bahia College of Pharmacy].
OBJECTIVE
To outline passive information offered by the Drug Information Center (DIC) of the Federal University of Bahia College of Pharmacy.


METHODS
Descriptive and prospective study of requests received at the DIC from March, 1997 to December, 2003. Results, represented as frequencies, were obtained by using Microsoft Excel.


RESULTS
1,267 requests were received in the study period. Thirty seven percent (37%) of these involved patients; 73% were done by telephone and 66% were answered the same way; 68% of the requests were made by pharmacists. About 39% of all requests were originated in hospitals and 23% in community pharmacies. A total of 1,459 questions were received, showing a proportion of 1.2 questions per information request, of which: 18% were related to drug indication/use; 13% to adverse reactions; 17% to identification of national and foreign products and active substances; 8% to posology and 6% to drug interactions. Fifty nine percent of the requests were answered within 23 hours.
Noblat
L
L
Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Federal de Bahía, Brazil. cimfarba@ufba.br
Martins
R
R
Costa
L
L
D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007253:Information Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010604:Pharmacy / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014495:Universities