EXERCISE NO.
3
HOSPITAL FORMULARY
I. OBJECTIVES
1. To know the content and detailed parts of the hospital formulary
2. To be familiar with the Philippine National Drug Formulary
II. DISCUSSION
Hospital Formulary
It is a continually revised compilation of pharmaceuticals that reflects the current
clinical judgment of the medical staff. A hospital formulary is useful to the Medical
Staff since without this, they would become dependent on the exaggerated claims of
the medical salesman.
Hospital Formulary System
It is a method whereby the Medical Staff of an institution, working through a
PTC, evaluates, appraises and selects from among numerous available medicinal
agents and dosage forms those that are considered most useful in patient care.
Formulary service gives the hospital Pharmacist the following opportunities:
1. Time to work with the medical staff in the selective evaluation of new drugs.
2. Time to organize and plan for interesting and stimulating meetings of the
PTC.
3. Time to work with the nursing staff in the elimination of practices and
procedures, which may lead to medication errors.
4. Time to encourage the medical staff to undertake an objective audit of the
discriminate use of the therapeutic agents and to enter other areas for
promotion of rational drug therapy.
5. Time to cooperate with the medical staff and nursing staff in numerous areas
involving broad policies concerning the use of drugs in the hospital.
The primary objective of the formulary is to provide the hospital staff with the following:
1. Information of what drug products have been approved by the PTC for the
patient use.
2. Basic therapeutic information about each approved item.
3. Information on hospital policies and procedures governing drug use.
4. Special information about drugs.
Content of a typical Formulary:
1. Title page
2. Names and titles of the members of the PTC
3. Table of contents
4. Information on hospital policies and procedures concerning drugs
a. Objectives and operation of the formulary system
b. Hospital regulations and procedures for prescribing and dispensing drugs
c. Hospital pharmacy services and procedures
d. Directions on how to use the formulary
5. Products accepted for use at the hospital
a. Items added, deleted and requested for inclusion to PNDF consistent with the
revision made by the NDF
b. Pharmacologic/Therapeutic indexes
c. Description of FD products by pharmacologic/therapeutic class
6. Appendix
a. Rules for calculating pediatric doses
b. Schedule of standard administration times
c. Forms of addition to/ deletion from formulary and other important
Format and Appearance of Hospital Formulary
1. The formulary should be visually pleasing, understandable, and must appear professional.
The need for proper grammar, punctuation, correct spelling and neatness is obvious.
2. Different colors of paper for each section of the formulary should be used.
3. An edge index should be used.
4. A pocket-size formulary that can fit laboratory coat/uniform pockets should be
developed. A small-sized book formulary is also recommended since it can be carried in
the physician’s bag along with prescription’s blanks.
5. The generic name of each drug entry should be printed in bold face using some other
method for making it stand out from the rest of the entries.
III. PROCEDURE
1. Group the students in the class. Assign each group to bring one private hospital
formulary.
2. Ask the members of the group to compare the private hospital formulary to that of the
PNDF based on:
a. Content
b. Therapeutic categories of drugs
c. Core list/ complementary lists of drugs
d. Additional drug information
e. Format
Name : _________________________________ Date: ___________
Group No.: _____________ Score: ___________
Exercise No. 3
Hospital Formulary
DATA
PNDF Private Hospital
Formulary
A. CATEGORY
B. Therapeutic Categories of
Drugs
C. Core/Complementary
List of drugs
D. Additional Drugs
E. Format
Questions:
1. What are the areas of distribution of a formulary?
2. What are the criteria for selecting drugs in the formulary?
3. What is the meaning of PNDF? What is its purpose?
4. What are the five pillars of a formulary?
5. What are the criteria for inclusion and deletion of drugs in PNDF?
6. Differentiate core and complimentary list found in a PNDF.
7. What are the information needed in each drug entry?
