Introduction to Buddhachnaraj Hospital

After introductions of the exceptional staff at the hospital Apple, one of the pharmacists gave us a brief overview of the facility. Buddhachnaraj Phittsnulok Hospital is the biggest hospital in the Northern region of Thailand. The facility has 1063 beds of which 70% of their patients are enrolled in the UC program and 13.4% pay cash. The mission of the hospital is to provide health services in all aspects and healthcare at all levels. They work within a joint development and production initiative to educate and train all medical personnels for public health. Buddhachnaraj Hospital is a teaching hospital that works with fourth fifth and sixth year medical and pharmacy students. The facility currently has 53 pharmacists, 946 nurses, 228 physicians, 24 dentists and 1356 other employees. With a staff this large the hospital sees 900,000 outpatients per year and 70,000 inpatients yearly. On a daily basis 3100 patients are seen by the different practices within the hospital. Apple went on to explain that the number one reason for an outpatient visit in 2014 was hypertension which attributed to 75000 cases and that the number one inpatient visit was for senile cataracts at 2195 patients. The hospital has 52 wards and 7 pharmacy dispensing rooms. We were lucky enough to tour a portion of the facility to include inpatient and outpatient pharmacy dispensing and the surgery dispensing unit.