International journal of clinical pharmacy
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Background The UK's Department of Health has recommended that formal communication channels between hospital and community pharmacy should be established so that post discharge Medicines Use Reviews (dMUR) become an integral part of the medicines pathway. Objective To investigate the perspective of community pharmacists on the usefulness of dMUR referrals from hospital, the suitability of patients referred and overall views on the service. Method Self-completed survey distributed to 21 community pharmacists who had received referrals from the hospital during a 9-month randomized controlled feasibility study. ⋯ Community pharmacists held positive opinions on the dMUR service and could see the benefit to patients. Pharmacists wanted more referrals but reported performing few dMURs outside this study. Conclusion This study highlights the need to improve communication between hospital and community pharmacies and to overcome barriers to performing dMURs outside the pharmacy premises in this patient group.
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Background Patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at an increased risk for medication errors. Objective The objective of this study is to describe the nature and setting of medication errors occurring in patients admitted to an NICU in Qatar based on a standard electronic system reported by pharmacists. Setting Neonatal intensive care unit, Doha, Qatar. ⋯ Conclusion Medication errors reported by pharmacists occur most frequently in the prescribing phase of the medication process. Our data suggest that error reporting systems need to be specific to the population involved. Special attention should be paid to frequently used medications in the NICU as these were responsible for the greatest numbers of medication errors.
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Background Pharmacists' involvement in patient care has improved the quality of care and reduced medication errors. However, this has required a lot of work that could not have been accomplished without documentation of interventions. Several means of documenting errors have been proposed in the literature but without a consistent comprehensive process. ⋯ The majority of interventions were in the field of cardiology followed by infectious disease related. When interventions per ME nodes were analyzed, a high percentage of intervention acceptance was noted across all nodes especially prescribing (68.30 %) monitoring (77.7 %) and in documenting errors (79.36 %). Conclusion The role of pharmacists in reducing preventable MRPs can be shown when pharmacy interventions are analyzed according to corresponding MRP and ME nodes.
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Background Uncontrolled pain reduces quality of life, delays recovery from surgery and can potentially contribute to the development of chronic pain. Strategies to improve pain management are desirable in view of these detrimental outcomes, yet frequently they are predominately medically based despite nurses playing key roles in pain assessment and analgesic administration. Objective To develop an algorithm-based guidance addressing nurses' pain assessment and analgesic administration and investigating its impact on quality of pain management. ⋯ Guideline adherence decreased with rising pain intensity (slope coefficient -0.763, p < 0.001). Conclusion Especially in patients suffering from severe pain, current guidelines were not strictly followed by nurses when administering analgesics. Guideline adherence improved eightfold by implementing an algorithm-based guidance.
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Background Pharmacist-physician collaboration can lead to many positive outcomes. However, collaboration between healthcare providers is complex and rarely performed optimally. Objectives To study physician-pharmacist collaboration in hospital settings, from the physician's point of view. ⋯ Physicians report they take drug treatment decisions as they bear the legal responsibility. Conclusion The presence, visibility and implication of hospital pharmacists need to be improved, and physicians should be more aware of what they can offer them. Physicians' expectations and needs should be taken further into consideration and new models of interaction should be developed.