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Showing results for tags 'Pharmacist'.
Found 182 results
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Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Soojin talks to us about how her personal experience of harm motivated her to work in healthcare and campaign for patient safety, the power of collaboration in improving healthcare safety and how healthcare workers can take steps to improve their own patient interactions. -
Content Article
Laurence Goldberg, an independent pharmaceutical consultant, discusses the effectiveness and also the potential for harm of unit-dose medicines distribution. -
Content ArticleThis blog on the NHS England website looks at how Written Medicine, a service that provides bilingual medication information, is helping to reduce healthcare inequalities and medical errors in London. Written Medicine’s software allows pharmacies and hospitals to translate and print medication information, instructions and warnings. Drawn from a dataset of 3,500 phrases, printed labels are available in fifteen different languages. The bilingual labels help patients take ownership of their treatment, giving them a better understanding of how to take their prescribed medication. The solution is helping to reduce errors, improve medication adherence and enhance patient safety and experience. The blog also looks at the experience of London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) using Written Medicine. A 2019 audit showed that the service was valued by patients and highly successful in increasing medication adherence through empowering patients.
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Content ArticleEach year, 7,000 to 9,000 people die as a result of a medication errors in the US, and the total cost of looking after patients with medication-associated errors exceeds $40 billion. Alongside this financial cost, adverse events caused by medication errors also cause patients significant psychological and physical pain and suffering. The article aims to: identify the most common medication errors. review some of the critical points at which medication errors are most likely to occur. outline strategies to prevent medication errors occurring. summarise multidisciplinary team strategies for decreasing medication errors.
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Content ArticleThe Pharmaceutical Journal speaks to formerly fit and well pharmacists and technicians whose lives have been devastated by Long Covid.
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Content ArticlePersistent Covid-19 illness following an acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 can have both a physical and psychological impact. Pharmacists in community and primary care should be able to provide patients with appropriate advice and support to manage their symptoms.
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Content ArticleWorld Pharmacist Day is an initiative by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) to promote the role that pharmacists play in improving patient safety. In this blog, Roohil Yusuf, Global Pharmacy Advisor at Save the Children, looks at the work of different partners in delivering safe pharmacy services in Afghanistan, Yemen and Sudan.
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Content Article
Considering Valproate video (February 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Medication
Sodium valproate is a medication used to treat epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraines, but it can cause birth defects, learning disabilities and developmental problems in babies if taken during pregmamcy. This video by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust discusses the various effects of using valproate, including the potential harmful effects the medication can have on unborn foetuses. It features a conversation between a pharmacist and patient discussing the need for a valproate pregnancy prevention programme if the patient is to be prescribed valproate. -
Content ArticleIn July 2022, Henrietta Hughes was appointed the first ever patient safety commissioner for England. The role was recommended in the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) review’s ‘First do no harm’ report, published in 2020, which explored issues relating to the use of Primodos, sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. Just a few weeks into her role as the first ever patient safety commissioner for England, The Pharmaceutical Journal spoke with Henrietta Hughes to find out more about her vision for patient safety in the NHS and where pharmacists fit into that.
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Content ArticleWhen leaving hospital with medicines, there can be a lot of information to take in. This checklist designed by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) is designed to help patients and their carers use medications safely when they leave hospital. It includes: Questions to consider before you leave hospital Questions to consider when you’ve left hospital Further useful resources Medicines safety and governance pharmacist Jen Flatman has written a blog about how the checklist was developed.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Jen Flatman, medicines safety and governance pharmacist, discusses a resource to support people to continue to use their medicines safely once they leave hospital. The medicines safety checklist was designed by patients and carers, for patients and carers, helping bridge the transition between hospital and the next destination. The points on the checklist are designed to act as a prompt, ensuring individuals are aware of key information to continue to use their medicines safely. They also act as a reminder to the reader to ask questions if they are unsure about anything.
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Content ArticleThis short video talks about the importance of recognising the signs and symptoms of head and neck cancer at the earliest opportunity, and describes actions which can be taken to support earlier diagnosis. Although aimed at pharmacists, it provides useful information for all patients and healthcare professionals on symptoms that might indicate head and neck cancer.
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Content ArticleThese reports by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia look at different aspects of medication safety. Medicine safety: Take care This report details the extent of harms in Australia as a result of medicine use. It highlights that 250,000 Australians are hospitalised each year, with another 400,000 presenting to emergency departments, as a result of medication errors, inappropriate use, misadventure and interactions. At least half of these incidents could have been prevented. Medicine safety: Aged care This report provides data about the real and current medication safety problems affecting older care residents across Australia. Medicine safety: Rural and remote care This report highlights the extreme challenges patients in rural and remote Australia have in accessing health care and the impact that this has on the safe and appropriate use of medicines. Medicine safety: Disability care This report focuses on the challenges that people with disability face in using medicines safely and effectively. The report found that people with disability face challenges at all stages of medicine use–prescribing, dispensing, administration and adherence and monitoring. Medicine safety forum: Informing Australia’s 10th National Health priority area This report presents a summary of views and experiences shared at a stakeholder workshop in December 2019.
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Content ArticleBC PSLS met with Wrae Hill, Human Factors and System Safety, Interior Health (IH), to discuss medication error traps. They use the example of an anaesthetist who, during an emergency C-section, under time constraint, gave their patient the drug cisatracurium instead of succinylcholine. Both medications are used for muscle relaxation and paralysis, however cisatracurium has a much longer duration of action. Cisatracurium was available in the Labour and Delivery Suite, but the vial cap of cisatracurium had previously been blue, yet today it was red. This ‘medication error trap’ – a recurrent situation that predictably snares a large number of different people – resulted in the patient having to be ventilated for longer than anticipated.
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Content Article
AHRQ Pharmacy Health Literacy Center
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Medicine management
This site provides pharmacists with recently released health literacy tools and other resources from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Pharmacy health literacy is the degree to which individuals are able to obtain, process, and understand basic health and medication information and pharmacy services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Only 12% of adults have proficient health literacy (e.g., can interpret the prescription label correctly). Medication errors are likely higher with patients with limited health literacy, as they are more likely to misinterpret the prescription label information and auxiliary labels. Studies document an association between low literacy and poor health outcomes. -
Content ArticlePrimary care doctors traditionally provide a longitudinal and holistic view of their patients’ prescriptions, but there are barriers to general practitioners (GPs) carrying out effective reviews in complex patients with polypharmacy. These include unawareness of inappropriate prescribing; fear of the consequences of making changes to prescriptions; lack of self-efficacy (insufficient confidence to make changes); and lack of resources. GPs regularly carry out medication reviews for those taking multiple medicines, often with the support of pharmacists, but report a need for onward referral options to physicians specialising in multimorbidity and polypharmacy. In partnership with pharmacy colleagues, the authors of this study piloted an outpatient polypharmacy clinic, with the eventual hope of moving towards an integrated service. The pilot demonstrated the feasibility of establishing a specialist service in the secondary care or integrated care setting, dedicated to improving clinical outcomes for those experiencing problematic polypharmacy. This paper was published in Future Healthcare Journal.
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Content ArticleAs prescription numbers continue to increase, it is necessary to understand the dispensing errors that can occur and how they may happen. This article is the first of two articles from Phipps et al. on dispensing errors and risk. Reducing risk and managing dispensing errors will build on the ideas proposed in this article.
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Content ArticleA joint National Patient Safety Alert has been issued by NHS Improvement and NHS England national patient safety team, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Physicians and Society for Endocrinology, regarding the introduction of a new Steroid Emergency Card to support the early recognition and treatment of adrenal crisis in adults.
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Content ArticleThis webpage is to provide resources and expertise that will help UK pharmacists at the beginning of their careers to tackle the clinical problems that will confront them throughout their professional lives. This site is aimed at pre-registration and foundation level pharmacists in hospitals.
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Medicines safety: NHS online learning index
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
This alphabetical index helps NHS staff with an interest in the safe use of medicines to quickly find e-learning or videos that have already been produced by the NHS, government agencies, or professional bodies. -
Content ArticleIt is hypothesized that 90% of antibiotic allergies documented in patients’ health records are not actual, potentially life threatening, type I allergies. This distinction is important because such documentation increases antibiotic resistance, as more second-choice and broad-spectrum antibiotics are then used. Evidence is lacking regarding causes of this inappropriate documentation. To develop interventions aimed at improving documentation, the authors of this study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, explored experiences of family physicians and pharmacists in this area. They found that the professionals involved perceived that antibiotic allergy documentation is seldom accurate, which may contribute to development of antibiotic resistance, increased costs, and decreased patient safety.
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Content Article
Out-patient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy (OPAT) is now a routine part of care in the UK following demonstration that it is safe and effective for patients and OPAT is now being actively promoted as part of the UK government’s stewardship initiatives. NHS North Tees and Hartlepool share their experience of redesigning their OPAT services. See the attachment below for details on the project. -
Content Article
The Salford Medication Safety Dashboard (SMASH)
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication administration
The Salford Medication Safety Dashboard (SMASH) was successfully used in general practices with the help of on-site pharmacists. SMASH is a web application that flags up a list of patients who are potentially at risk from medicines they have been prescribed. -
Content ArticleThe results of the 2019 ‘Patient safety culture survey’ of 917 pharmacy professionals, carried out by the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (PSG) in April and May 2019 came after the introduction of a legal defence for dispensing errors in 2018. The survey results found only 14% of pharmacy professionals are worried about criminal prosecution when reporting a patient safety incident, compared with 40% in 2016. The survey also showed that 22% of pharmacy professionals would not report a patient safety incident inside their organisation owing to fears of criminal prosecution. This is compared with 40% of 623 respondents saying in 2016 that they would not report a patient safety incident because of the possibility of criminal prosecution.
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Content ArticleA recent report from the Healthcare Safety Investigations Branch, Investigation into electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems and safe discharge, highlighted the fact that poorly implemented ePMA (electronic prescribing and medicines administration) systems can result in potentially fatal medication errors. The report focused on the death of 75 year-old Mrs Ann Midson, following a medication error. In this podcast interview, Pharmacy in Practice speaks to Scott Hislop and Helen Jones, two of the investigators, to discuss the series of events that ultimately culminated in the sad passing of Mrs Ann Midson.
