Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Pharmacy / chemist'.
Found 125 results
-
Content ArticleThis report by the consultancy firm Deloitte looks at patient safety across biopharmaceutical (biopharma) value chains, arguing that change is needed to make medications safer for patients and add value to pharmaceutical products. The authors highlight that there is currently great potential for strategies to increase safety, improve equity and enhance patient engagement and experience. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and data analytics, combined with increased incidence of adverse event reports (AERs) and increasing expectation of more personalised, preventative, predictive and participatory (4P) medicine, present an opportunity to improve pharmacovigilance.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Content ArticleNHS Pharmacy aseptic services in England provide sterile controlled environments for the preparation of injectable medicines into Ready to Administer (RtA) formats for patients. Although not highly visible to patients, £3.84 billion is spent on injectable medicines across the NHS in England each year. Services are subject to high levels of regulatory control and quality assurance. Products include chemotherapy, injectable nutrition and clinical trials for new medicines. This has the potential to release nursing time for care, improve patient safety and support more patient care closer to home. Pharmacy aseptic services are an essential cornerstone of many critical NHS services. They make the chemotherapy that treats cancer patients, the intravenous feed that keeps very sick children and those with intestinal failure alive and the innovative medicines that target complex diseases. The report was commissioned by the Minister of State for Health to provide advice to the government and NHS England and Improvement (NHSE-I), to regional, system, and trust pharmacy leads, as well as independent sector aseptic pharmacy providers.
-
Content ArticleSupport in clinical decision making is recognised as an educational development need for pharmacists. The health policy landscape puts the pharmacist in a central role for clinical management of long-term complex morbidities, making clinical decision making and taking responsibility for patient outcomes increasingly important. This is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, where healthcare environments have become more complex and challenging to navigate. In this environment, foundation pharmacists were unable to sit the GPhC registration assessment during the summer of 2020 but provisionally the registration assessment is due to take place online during the first quarter of 2021. In response to this, a suite of resources has been developed with collaboration between Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) and Health Education England (HEE). These resources are aimed in particular at early career pharmacists and their supervisors, especially those in foundation pharmacist positions managing the transition from education to the workplace environment.
-
Content ArticleThis guidance from the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) is aimed at early career pharmacists, especially those in foundation pharmacist positions managing the transition from education to the workplace environment. Support in clinical decision-making is recognised as an educational development need for early career pharmacists, making the transition from a university education where there is very little exposure to the clinical environment into the work environment. This situation is compounded by a policy landscape which puts the pharmacist in a central role for clinical management of long-term complex morbidities, making clinical decision making and taking responsibility for patient outcomes increasingly important. The guidance will also be of use to those involved in the education and mentorship of early career pharmacist.
-
Content ArticlePharmacy teams should understand how to minimise the risk and likelihood of dispensing errors, including methods that can be used to evaluate existing processes, as well as how to deal with errors if they happen. This article from Phipps et al., in the Pharmaceutical Journal, builds upon the ideas proposed in ‘Understanding dispensing errors and risk’, and also proposes strategies and methods that should be considered for use in the pharmacy to manage the risk of dispensing errors.
-
Content ArticleThe Medication Errors Group was established in 2017 under the leadership of Dr Brian Edwards and Professor Ian Wong.. Ensuring the safe and effective use of healthcare products is a key objective for those who work in pharmacovigilance, as well as all other stakeholders, including patients and caregivers. One key element of that is working to reduce and mitigate medication errors and other irrational use of drugs. The mission of the Medication Errors Group is To provide an opportunity for International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) members, and like-minded collaborators, to network globally in a professional and neutral environment, to share evidence and solutions that can ideally eliminate and/or at least reduce the number and severity of medication errors. This will enable continuous improvement in the use of medicines whilst supporting the interests of patients and their families, and healthcare professionals.
-
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.
-
Content ArticleDouble checking medication administration in hospitals is often standard practice, particularly for high-risk drugs, yet its effectiveness in reducing medication administration errors (MAEs) and improving patient outcomes remains unclear. This systematic review of studies, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, evaluates evidence of the effectiveness of double checking to reduce MAEs.
-
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.
-
Content ArticleGood patient-pharmacist communication improves health outcomes. There is, however, room for improving pharmacists’ communication skills. These develop through complex interactions during undergraduate pharmacy education, practice-based learning and continuing professional development. The aim of the research, published in Systemic Reviews, is to understand how educational interventions develop patient-pharmacist interpersonal communication skills produce their effects.
-
Content Article
About the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Community pharmacies
The Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group provides a forum for community pharmacy organisations, competitors in a commercial sense, to openly share and learn from each other when things go wrong, as well as from other sectors and industries. They are a self-funded, self-created Group with a difference. They consider how learning from patient safety incidents can be applied across the pharmacy network and wider NHS, and then create the opportunities and resources to do just that. -
Content Article
What do community pharmacists do? (June 2013)
Claire Cox posted an article in Community pharmacies
Watch this short video produced by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to find out the role of the community pharmacist. -
Content ArticleThe Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) is the only nonprofit organisation in the US devoted entirely to preventing medication errors. In this video, produced by ISMP in partnership with the Temple University School of Pharmacy, experts discuss medication safety concerns and offer practical error prevention recommendations.
-
Content ArticleThis is part of a continued professional development (CPD) module series for community pharmacy technicians. This module aims to help pharmacists and their teams recognise the importance of reporting patient safety incidents.
-
Content Article
Standards for pharmacy professionals - General Pharmaceutical Council
Claire Cox posted an article in Others
The General Pharmaceutical Council regulates pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and registered pharmacies in Great Britain. -
Content ArticleThe International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has set up a FIP COVID-19 information hub with guidance to support pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce in responding to the pandemic. The updated guidance document takes into account newly available evidence and recommendations.
-
Content ArticleNHS Education for Scotland has developed a TURAS Learn page to support student pharmacists in Scotland.
-
Content Article
The problem with medication reconciliation
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
Medication reconciliation (‘med rec’, as it is often called) refers to the ‘process of identifying the most accurate list of all medications a patient is taking … and using this list to provide correct medications for patients anywhere within the health system’. Two recent systematic reviews summarised the evidence for med rec interventions, finding that several med rec interventions reduced medication history errors and errors in patients’ admission and discharge medication regimens. -
Content Article
VTE prevention: How can pharmacists contribute? (August 2011)
Claire Cox posted an article in Community pharmacies
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is responsible for over 25,000 deaths a year in the UK, including 10% of hospital inpatient deaths. A House of Commons report in 2005 led to the development of guidance by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Chief Medical Officer, for the safe use of anticoagulants and other measures to prevent VTE (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism). VTE prevention is a patient safety priority for the National Health Service (NHS). -
Content ArticlePharmacies in Cheshire and Merseyside are being notified by their local hospital when a patient is discharged who might need help with their medication. The initiative, called Transfer of Care Around Medicines, is improving patient safety and quality of care – and saved the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside an estimated £9.5 million over the three years to Spring 2019.
-
Content ArticleMedication safety events with the potential for patient harm do occur in healthcare settings. Pharmacists are regularly tasked with utilizing their medication knowledge to optimize the medication-use process and reduce the likelihood of error. To prepare for these responsibilities in professional practice, it is important to introduce patient safety principles during educational experiences. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) have set forth accreditation standards focused on the management of medication-use processes to ensure these competencies during pharmacy didactic learning and postgraduate training. The experience described here provides perspective on educational and experiential opportunities across the continuum of pharmacy education, with a focus on a relationship between a college of pharmacy and healthcare system. Various activities, including discussions, medication event reviews, audits, and continuous quality improvement efforts, have provided the experiences to achieve standards for these pharmacy learners. These activities support a culture of safety from early training.
-
Content Article
Chilean Journal of Patient Safety
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in International patient safety
The official voice of the Foundation for Patient Safety - CHILE, to spread knowledge and share advances in clinical practices, which allow us to provide safe and quality care, in all areas of health care, from high complexity to home care. Download the latest issue below. (In Spanish, but option to translate to English when you download.)
