Abstract
Objectives:. To document the appropriate way of oxygen utilization therapy for patients admitted in the medical and pediatric wards and to determine whether oxygen therapy as a medicine or not.
Patients and methods: The study involved 100 patients, 11 children and 89 adults, who were receiving oxygen therapy, in different medical and pediatric wards , in Ibn-Sina Teaching Hospital. The youngest patient was 2 months and the oldest was 85 years. Mean of adult patients 56.7 ± 16.1 years while mean of infant 3.5 ±1.59 months . All patients who screened had oxygen apparatus at the bedside, physician orders for oxygen therapy, order of other medical treatment, diagnosis and clinical indication for oxygen therapy and pulse oximetry.
Results: Oxygen therapy was not indicated in 75% of the cases, and oxygen was given without supervision during administration, while most other orders of medical therapeutic drugs were written properly and given by pharmacists. Most of the adult patients suffered from respiratory (40%) or cardiac (31%) problems; the remainder (29%) have other illnesses, 8 of the children suffered from chest infection.
Conclusion: Oxygen therapy was poorly prescribed and poorly understood and paid less attention compared with other drug therapy.
