Table 2 Summary characteristics of ART service by facility
From: Economic evaluation of task-shifting approaches to the dispensing of anti-retroviral therapy
| Â | Group A: full-time pharmacist | Group B: pharmacist assistant under indirect supervision | Group C: nurse-driven | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pharm clinic 1 | Pharm clinic 2 | ISPA clinic 1 | ISPA clinic 2 | Nurse clinic 1 | Nurse clinic 2 | |
Level of service | CDCa | clinic | CDC | CDC | clinic | CDC |
Pharmaceutical care delivery system | A full-time pharmacist and pharmacist’s assistant dispenses medication on request, and sends the patient-ready packs to nurses to dispense to patients. | Full-time pharmacist dispenses directly to patients, gives adherence and side-effects counselling. | PA working under indirect supervision dispenses directly to patients from the general pharmacy. | PA working under indirect supervision dispenses directly to patients from the general pharmacy. | Nurse does the clinical examination and dispenses ART from patient-ready packs ordered from the central pharmacy. | Nurse does the clinical examination and dispenses ART from patient-ready packs ordered from the central pharmacy. |
Staff assisting in pharmaceutical care related | 1 Pharm | 0.66 Pharm | 0.2 SPharmb | 0.2 SPharm | 0.2 SPharm | 0.2 SPharm |
1 PA | 0.66 PA | 1 PA | 1 PA | 0.2 PA | 0.2 PA | |
0.6 Nurse | 0.66 PA | Â | 0.6 Nurse | 0.36 Nurse | 0.2 Nurse | |
0.6 Nurse | Â | Â | Â | Â | 0.08 Nurse | |
Number of patients on ART | 1874 | 829 | 454 | 621 | 228 | 210 |
Ratio of FTE staff to patients enrolled in care | 1:586 | 1:419 | 1:378 | 1:345 | 1:300 | 1:309 |
Average number of months on ART (SD) | 38 (12–52) months | 28 (15–49) months | 10 (4–21) months | 7 (4–15) months | 11 (5–15) months | 11 (6–23) months |