Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Prescribing'.
Found 327 results
-
Content ArticleAntibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon that happens when bacteria develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. This case study focuses on large outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant strains of cholera and typhoid in Zimbabwe. It describes the steps taken to tackle the outbreaks, including a mass typhoid Vi-conjugate vaccine (TCV) vaccination campaign from February to March 2019 in nine suburbs of Harare that were severely affected by the outbreak.
-
Content Article
WHO: World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Medication
World Antimicrobial Awareness Week takes place from the 18-24 November every year. On this page the WHO explains what antimicrobial resistance is and provides several short explanatory videos about how this can be prevented. -
Content ArticleThis study in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology involved searching electronic health records to uncover how many people in prisons have been affected by a potential problem related to their prescribed medication. Researchers looked at published studies and worked with prison healthcare staff to develop and implement prescribing safety indicators (PSIs) for prison electronic health records. The authors found that PSIs provide a significant opportunity to measure and improve medication safety for people in prisons and that more patients were affected by some PSIs than others. The study also investigated how the searches could be used more widely in prisons and interviewed 20 prison health care staff to explore this topic. The staff they spoke to said that it was important to have people who can take on leadership of the searches and to promote team-based responses to them.
-
Content ArticleSoojin Jun, a pharmacist and a patient advocate, discusses three ways in which pharmacists can help solve the health crisis in the US."The first and foremost value of recognizing pharmacists as providers is that we can help deprescribing medications and guide patients to healthier lives for many chronic illnesses. Many insurance and government sponsored programs are wasting money by “restricting” how pharmacists should practice under their laws and regulations when they can better use the time and money by “guiding” how pharmacists could practice as providers."
-
Content Article
NHS England: Support for prescribers
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Medication administration
NHS England has commissioned the Specialist Pharmacy Service to provide prescribers with all the support they need to: Stop prescribing medicines which are not clinically-effective or cost-effective Provide clear information to patients to help them make meaningful choices and decisions about their treatment Help people to get the benefits they want from their prescribed medicines Encourage people to ‘self-care’ and choose not to take a medicine if they don’t really need one Take positive action to reduce waste so we stop throwing away so many medicines. -
Content ArticleThe government commissioned Dr Keith Ridge, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, to lead a review into the use of medication and overprescribing.
-
Content ArticleThe authors of this research study, published in BMJ Quality & Safety looked at the issues of hazardous prescribing and inadequate monitoring in patients with mental health issues being managed in primary care. They identified a lack of data in this area, despite most patients with mental illness receiving treatment in a primary care setting. The study found that: 9.4% of patients ‘at risk’ triggered at least one indicator for potentially hazardous prescribing. The risk was greatest for patients aged 35–44, females and those receiving more than 10 repeat prescriptions. 90.2% of patients ‘at risk’ triggered at least one indicator for inadequate monitoring. The risk was particularly high in people under the age of 25, females and those with one or no repeat prescription. The authors of the study hope their findings will support providers to reduce risk and improve care for patients who receive mental health treatment in primary care.
-
Content ArticleThe Medicines and Medical Devices Bill has received royal assent and has become law. The new Act will enable the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to implement a number of policies to amend the existing regulatory frameworks, although generally regulations under the Act must first be introduced. The potential changes include: Supporting the availability of medicines: enabling hub and spoke arrangements between different legal entities, to ‘support wider use of automation to bring increased efficiencies’; requiring manufacturers to provide electronic patient information leaflets; and increasing the professions able to prescribe and supply certain medicines. Protecting the public: developing a UK medicines verification system; introducing a national registration scheme for online sellers of medicines; and facilitating supply of medicines and medical devices during non-pandemic public health emergencies.
-
Content ArticleStudents learn about medication and non-medication strategies for reducing symptoms of depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms (e.g. agitation, anxiety) in people with dementia. While non-medication strategies are often emphasised as being preferable, often we lack the time and resources to facilitate their implementation. There is also a sense that people believe that medications worked better—even though we don’t really know if this is true since studies comparing medication to non-medication strategies are rare. The problem with prescribing medications in this patient population is that medications are associated with potentially catastrophic side effects (e.g. falls and fractures). Jennifer Watt and Zahra Goodarzi undertook a research project looking at the comparative efficacy of interventions for reducing symptoms of depression in people with dementia. Based on their clinical experience as geriatricians, they hypothesised that non-medication strategies could effectively reduce symptoms of depression because they are addressing its underlying causes.
-
Content ArticleDr Helen Simpson, Lisa Shepherd and Dr Steve Kell summarise the guidance and implementation of the steroid emergency card in primary care.
-
Content ArticleIn this blog, Steve Turner, a qualified nurse, specialising in clinical educational and patient engagement, offers up four tips for managing medicines in care home settings, under the following headings: Care Homes must have a medicines policy that is regularly reviewed. People must have an accurate listing of their medicines on the day they transfer to the care home. People who live in care homes should have at least 1 multidisciplinary medication review per year. Ensure you have safe systems for administering and recording medicines. To read the full blog and to find out more about each tip, follow the link below.
-
Content Article
This competency framework has been developed and updated to support prescribers in expanding their knowledge, skills, motives and personal traits, to continually improve their performance, and work safely and effectively. -
Content ArticleThe rise in opioid overdoses warrants a review of the symptoms of akathisia writes Russell Copelan.
-
Content ArticleIn this article in the Pharmaceutical Journal, Carolyn Wickware asks if liquid morphine should be reclassified. She cites research that Oramorph or oral morphine sulphate solution was directly linked to the cause of death in 13 reports since 2013.
-
Content ArticleA National Patient Safety Alert has been issued on the elimination of bottles of liquefied phenol 80%. The alert has been issued by the NHS England and NHS Improvement National Patient Safety Team, British Orthopaedic Society, The Association of Coloproctology Great Britain and Ireland, and Royal College of Podiatry.
-
Content ArticleStopping antidepressants commonly causes withdrawal symptoms, which can be severe and long-lasting. This paper, published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, outlines the themes emerging from 158 respondents to an open invitation to describe the experience of prescribed psychotropic medication withdrawal for petitions sent to British parliaments.
-
Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Authority are inviting PharmD students and faculty to submit their manuscripts by 30 June. A panel of guest editors—pharmacy experts from across the United States—will select their favourites.
-
Content ArticleAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global problem that impacts all countries and all people, regardless of their wealth or status. The scale of the AMR threat, and the need to contain and control it, is widely acknowledged by country governments, international agencies, researchers and private companies alike. This document sets out the UK’s 2019–2024 national action plan to tackle AMR within and beyond our own borders. Developed in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders across different sectors, it builds on the achievements of our last strategy (2013–2018), and is aligned with global plans and frameworks for action. The plan has ultimately been designed to ensure progress towards our 20-year vision on AMR, in which resistance is effectively contained and controlled. It focuses on three key ways of tackling AMR: reducing need for, and unintentional exposure to, antimicrobials; optimising use of antimicrobials investing in innovation, supply and access.
-
Content Article
Inappropriate prescribing during a pandemic: dementia and antipsychotics
Anonymous posted an article in Dementia
Back in February, the team at Patient Safety Learning highlighted how the number of antipsychotic medication prescriptions for people living with dementia had increased in care settings. What’s worrying, is these prescriptions can be administered inappropriately and cause tremendous harm. This is one family's pandemic story. -
Content ArticleThis study in the British Journal of General Practice looked at the association between continuity of GP care and potentially inappropriate prescribing in patients with dementia, as well as the incidence of adverse health outcomes. The study authors found that for patients with dementia, consulting with the same doctor consistently, resulted in: 35% less risk of delirium 58% less risk of incontinence 10% less risk in emergency admission to hospital less inappropriate prescribing. The results demonstrate that increasing continuity of care for patients with dementia could improve their treatment and outcomes.
-
Content ArticleThe objective of the national Medicines Safety Improvement Programme is to help patients get the maximum benefit from their medicines and reduce waste with an overarching aim to reduce medication related harm in health and social care, focusing on high risk drugs, situations and vulnerable patients. Each area of work in this programme intends to make medicines safety part of routine practice, ensure medicines use is as safe as possible and understand the patients’ experience. The national Medicines Safety Improvement Programme (MedSIP) is led by NHS England and Improvement’s patient safety team. The programme is delivered by the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative. Learn more about the West of England's MedSIP.
-
Content ArticleIn North America, although pharmacists are obligated to ensure prescribed medications are appropriate, information about a patient’s reason for use is not a required component of a legal prescription. The benefits of prescribers including the reason for use on prescriptions is evident in the current literature. However, it is not standard practice to share this information with pharmacists.The aim of this study was to characterise the research on how including the reason for use on a prescription impacts pharmacists.The results suggest that including the reason for use on a prescription can help the pharmacist catch more errors, reduce the need to contact prescribers, support patient counseling, impact communication, and improve patient safety. Reasons that may prevent prescribers from adding the reason for use information are concerns about workflow and patient privacy.
-
Content ArticleThis article in Translational and Clinical Pharmacology aims to highlight the need to reconsider current medication dosing strategies in reproductive women. It uses the example of schizophrenia to illustrate how a woman's clinical symptoms can change throughout the ovulatory cycle, leading to fluctuations in medication responses. The authors found that healthcare professionals need to consider hormonal and clinical changes that occur with the menstrual cycle when prescribing treatments. They also call for further research to increase knowledge of the issues and find better treatment strategies in women whose symptoms change with cyclical changes in ovarian hormones. However, they warn that results from such studies should never override the symptoms and treatment responses experienced by individual clinical patients.
-
Content ArticleIn this study, 156 participants were recruited and randomised to placebo (n=83) or ketamine (n=73), stratified by centre and diagnosis: bipolar, depressive, or other disorders. Two 40-minute intravenous infusions of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) or placebo (saline) were administered at baseline and 24 hours, in addition to usual treatment. The primary outcome was the rate of patients in full suicidal remission at day 3, according to the scale for suicidal ideation total score ≤3. Analyses were conducted on an intention-to-treat basis. The findings indicate that ketamine is rapid, safe in the short term, and has persistent benefits for acute care in suicidal patients. Comorbid mental disorders appear to be important moderators. An analgesic effect on mental pain might explain the anti-suicidal effects of ketamine. There are also some useful and thought-provoking comments on this research, and a helpful visual aid.
-
Content ArticleThis white paper documents a roundtable discussion held at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care in Europe 2021. Participants discussed how smart medication management can be improved to optimise healthcare quality and efficiency. The meeting was chaired by Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li, a researcher of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine and medical informatics, and editor-in-chief of BMJ Health and Care Informatics.
