[Unit dose systems prepared for geriatric patients. I].

The project was carried out to facilitate and improve the quality of the use of drugs by geriatric patients aiming at the observation of the therapeutic regimen and the improvement of their compliance. The group under study comprised 15 clients living in a selected old people's home in the city of Brno, for whom the pharmacist prepared drugs into one-week blister dispensers on the basis of their health dossiers for a period of 6 months (February - July 2002). Polypharmacy occured in all patients included into a unit-dose preparation for drugs; they took on average 16 drugs in a week. The most frequently administered drugs belonged to the ATC groups of psycholeptics, anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic agents, peripheral vasodilators, antianaemic agents, cardiac therapy, diuretics, and vasoprotectives and venopharmaceuticals. The dimensions of the dispensers used and the size of individual blisters in them proved to be sufficient with an average number of 11 drugs dispensed weekly. The preparation of one-week drug dispensers was also evaluated from the standpoint of time consumption. The average time of preperation of dispensers by the pharmacist was 16 minutes 20 seconds. Time consumption was connected not only with the total number of drugs dispensed, but also with the frequency of drug dosing, splitting (halving, quartering) of drugs, and frequent changes in medication.