Evaluation of Pharmacists’ Compliance with Standard Operating Procedures in Hospital Pharmacy Units in Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria

Standard operating procedures are essential tools for ensuring quality, consistency, and safety in hospital pharmacy operations. Compliance with these procedures directly affects medication safety and regulatory accreditation status. This study evaluated compliance with standard operating procedures among pharmacists working in hospital pharmacy units in Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. A structured observational checklist was used to assess compliance in ten purposively selected hospital pharmacies across the city. Fourteen pharmacy activities were observed including prescription verification, drug labeling, storage temperature monitoring, controlled substance documentation, and drug reconstitution procedures. Supplementary interviews were conducted with pharmacists to identify perceived barriers to compliance. Overall compliance rate was 63 percent, with the highest compliance recorded for prescription verification and lowest for controlled substance documentation and temperature monitoring logs. Barriers cited included inadequate staffing, absence of written procedure documents, time pressure, and insufficient management support. Pharmacies with designated pharmacy managers showed significantly higher compliance rates. These findings identify critical gaps in operational standards within hospital pharmacies in Jos and suggest that regulatory inspections and internal pharmacy audits should be conducted more frequently. Development and dissemination of updated, context-specific standard operating procedures tailored to North Central Nigerian hospital settings are also recommended. Keywords: standard operating procedures, hospital pharmacy, compliance, Jos, medication safety