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New partnership to improve patient safety in South East London ICS
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust will work with Omnicell to develop a European technology-enabled inventory optimisation and intelligence service which will be initially implemented across South East London Integrated Care System (ICS). This partnership will encompass all six acute hospital sites within the South East London ICS, including Guy’s & St Thomas’, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust. The project will have the following goals: Develop analytics and reporting tools with a goal of improving patient safety, achieving increased operational efficiency and cost efficiencies Utilize the analytics and reporting tools with a goal of achieving agreed efficiencies and cost reductions Demonstrate the impact of managing clinical supplies and medicine spend together at scale Build a service model for the ICS which can be scaled up and adopted by other hospital groups in the UK Read the full article here -
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News ArticleThe National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has asked community pharmacies to report all patient safety incidents despite growing work pressure due to a persisting virus pandemic. Since March, there has been a significant decrease in the number of patient safety incidents being reported, the NPA said in its medication safety update for the second quarter of 2020. Overall, there was a 44.5% decrease in the number of incidents reported during the second quarter of the year, compared to the first quarter of 2020. There was a 40.6% decrease in the number of patient safety incidents when compared to the same quarter in 2019. “This is a significant reduction in number of incidents being reported. This may be due to the increased workload and pressure on pharmacy teams due to COVID-19 pandemic, whereby pharmacy teams may not be prioritising reporting of patient safety incidents, or due to other, as yet unknown, reasons,” NPA said in its update. NPA advises community pharmacists to ensure that they report the actual degree of harm caused to the patient and not the potential harm that could have happened. The pharmacy body also suggested pharmacists should make sure that they complete a detailed outcome if an incident did lead to moderate or severe harm to the patient. This allows a thorough analysis to be undertaken by the NPA. Community pharmacists are also advised to ensure the incident form is fully completed, is accurate and includes sufficient details to allow meaningful analysis of the incident. Read full story Source: Pharmacy Business, 27 October 2020
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AHRQ Pharmacy Health Literacy Center
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Medicine management
The tools include: Seven health literacy tools for pharmacy: Pharmacy Health Literacy Assessment Tool & User's Guide. Training Program for Pharmacy Staff on Communication. Guide on How To Create a Pill Card. Telephone Reminder Tool To Help Refill Medicines On Time. Explicit and Standardized Prescription Medicine Instructions. How to Conduct a Postdischarge Followup Phone Call Health literacy tools to improve communication for providers of medication therapy management Curricular modules for pharmacy faculty. Resources for pharmacists interested in understanding more about health literacy. Health literacy tools to improve communication for providers of medication therapy management. -
News ArticleA pharmacist-led, new digital intervention that improves patient safety when prescribing medication in general practice reduced rates of hazardous prescribing by more than 40%, 12 months after it had been introduced to 43 GP practices in Salford, finds a new study. Due to its success, plans are underway to roll it out across Greater Manchester. Prescribing and medication are one of the biggest causes of patient safety incidents and the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge is focussed on Medication without Harm. The SMASH intervention addresses this. It was developed by researchers at the National Institute for Health Research Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (NIHR GM PSTRC), which is a partnership between The University of Manchester and Salford Royal hospital in collaboration with The University of Nottingham. Pharmacists working in general practice use the SMASH dashboard to identify patients who are exposed to potentially hazardous prescribing. For example, patients with a history of internal bleeding may be prescribed medications such as aspirin which could increase the risk of further internal bleeds without prescribing other treatments to protect them. SMASH identifies this and warns healthcare professionals about it, who can then decide on a possible course of action. The intervention is unique due to its ability to provide near real time feedback to prescribers as it updates every evening. Professor Darren Ashcroft, Research Lead for the Medication Safety theme at the GM PSTRC, said: "We worked with the Safety Informatics theme at the GM PSTRC to develop then test SMASH. It is designed to improve patient safety in general practice by reducing potential problems made when prescribing medication and inadequate blood-test monitoring. It brings together people and data to reduce these common medication safety problems that all too often can cause serious harm." Read full story Source: EurekAlert, 14 October 2020
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Midwives and paramedics to deliver flu and Covid vaccines, proposes DHSC
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An 'expanded workforce' will be delivering flu and a potential COVID-19 vaccine, under proposals unveiled by the Government today. The three-week consultation also focuses on a proposal of mass vaccinations against COVID-19 using a yet-to-be-licensed vaccine, if one becomes available this year. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is hoping new legislation could come into effect by October, ahead of the winter season. The consultation proposes to amend the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 to "expand the workforce legally allowed to administer vaccines under NHS and local authority occupational health schemes, so that additional healthcare professionals in the occupational health workforce will be able to administer vaccines". It said this would include 'midwives, nursing associates, operating department practitioners, paramedics, physiotherapists and pharmacists'. The consultation said: "This will help ensure we have the workforce needed to deliver a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme, in addition to delivery of an upscaled influenza programme, in the autumn." The consultation also said that "there is a possibility that both the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered at the same time, and we need to make sure that in this scenario there is sufficient workforce to allow for this". Read full story Source: Pulse, 28 August 2020 -
News ArticleFollowing four deaths and more than 300 incidents with steroid replacement therapy involving patients with adrenal insufficiency in the past two years, patients at risk of adrenal crisis will be issued with a steroid emergency card. All adults with primary adrenal insufficiency (AI) will be issued an NHS steroid emergency card to support early recognition and treatment of adrenal crisis, a National Patient Safety Alert has said. The cards will be issued by prescribers — including community pharmacists — from 18 August 2020. AI is an endocrine disorder, such as Addison’s disease, which can lead to adrenal crisis and death if not identified and treated. Omission of steroids in patients with AI, particularly during physiological stress such as an additional illness or surgery, can also lead to an adrenal crisis. The alert has requested that “all organisations that initiate steroid prescriptions should review their processes/policies and their digital systems/software and prompts to ensure that prescribers issue a steroid emergency card to all eligible patients” by 13 May 2021. Read full story Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 17 August 2020
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Patients Know Best launches education programme for medical students
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Patients Know Best has launched an education programme which can be used by medical schools. Among the first to use the programme are undergraduate Pharmacy students at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The Patients Know Best platform, which recently became the first personal health record to be fully integrated into the NHS App, has been incorporated into the curriculum to facilitate simulated interactions between patients and pharmacists. This has involved training the students to use Patients Know Best to enable their use of the platform to interact and collaborate with each other. Read the full article here. -
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Medicines safety: NHS online learning index
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
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Coronavirus: 70% of BAME pharmacists have had no risk assessment
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than two-thirds of black, Asian and minority ethnic pharmacists have not had workplace risk assessments for coronavirus, a survey suggests. Of the 380 hospital and community-based pharmacists surveyed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the UK Black Pharmacists Association, 236 were from a BAME background. Of those, 166 (70%) said they had not been approached by their employer to have a risk assessment. The RPS called the results "shocking". It has called on employers to take urgent action to ensure ethnic minority pharmacists are risk assessed. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 June 2020 -
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Government delay could see people miss out on vaccines
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Pharmacies are warning people are at risk of not getting the flu jab unless an urgent decision is made over the winter vaccination programme. The Company Chemists’ Association, which represents large pharmacy groups, told HSJ the government and NHS England need to “urgently” clarify how many people it wants vaccinated for flu this year, as well as making changes to regulations. An expanded and successful winter vaccine programme is seen as key to avoiding potentially catastrophic demand for hospital beds, with flu demand coinciding with covid-19 surges. Malcolm Harrison, chief executive, said: “We need decisions made now. We have an ongoing dialogue with NHS England but they seem to be waiting on secretary of state’s decision on which groups need vaccinating. That is something [the health secretary, Matt Hancock] needs to make a decision about very, very soon.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 10 July 2020 -
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The Salford Medication Safety Dashboard (SMASH)
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
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Transfers of Care Around Medicines (TCAM)
Claire Cox posted an article in Medication including labelling
This is what the Transfers of Care Around Medicine (TCAM) project aims to address: When patients discharged from hospital are identified as needing extra support, they are referred through a safe and secure digital platform for advice from their local community pharmacist. Original work in the North East showed that patients who see their community pharmacist after they’ve been in hospital are less likely to be readmitted and, if they are, will experience a shorter stay. Many AHSNs, including Wessex and the West of England, have worked with trusts and Local Pharmaceutical Committees to help set up a secure electronic interface between the hospital IT systems and PharmOutcomes, the community pharmacy system used in their area. This has further enhanced TCAM by providing patient data quickly and seamlessly to their community pharmacist. Wessex AHSN developed an awareness campaign to encourage people to seek help with their medicines, featuring a character called Mo in a series of animated films and accompanying poster resources for pharmacies. The films have been viewed almost 64,000 times. Through the national implementation of TCAM in 2018-2020, each AHSN will support their local trusts to establish a TCAM pathway. This will enable all suitable patients to be referred to their community pharmacy or GP pharmacist where appropriate. -
Content ArticleThe FIP hub includes: Modes of transmission and incubation period.. Pharmacy operations and facilities: ensuring safety and continuity of service. Preventive measures, including the use of masks. Pharmacy interventions and patient counselling. Treatment guidelines and medicines that may need to be stocked. Progress in medicines and vaccines development. Laboratory testing for COVID-19 in suspected human cases. Cleaning and disinfection products and procedures. Travel advice. This guidance is based on the available evidence and the recommendations of reputable organisations such as the World Health Organization, the United States and the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and others, at the time of publishing. Knowledge on COVID-19 is rapidly changing and recommendations may change accordingly. FIP is also providing educational webinars and new communication lines related to COVID-19.
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News ArticlePharmacy leaders in the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities have expressed concern that assessments of BAME staff’s susceptibility to COVID-19 are not widespread enough in community pharmacy. NHS England wrote to community pharmacies on 29 April 2020 advising employers to “risk assess staff at potentially greater risk” of COVID-19 after “emerging UK and international data” suggested people from BAME backgrounds are “being disproportionately affected”. The Faculty of Occupational Medicine later published a risk reduction framework — backed by NHS England — to assist with the risk assessments on 14 May 2020. This was updated on 28 May 2020 to include guidance from the Health and Safety Executive to “help organisations identify who is at risk of harm”. But speaking to The Pharmaceutical Journal, Elsy Gomez Campos, president of the UK Black Pharmacists’ Association (UKBPA), said she had been told by a small number of community pharmacists that “nothing has been done” in terms of risk assessing BAME staff. “I know of a few people who have been assessed and that is mainly in hospital,” she said. “In terms of community pharmacists — who I’ve had contact with so far — they haven’t even been asked to have the risk assessment done.” However, she stressed that not many from the community pharmacy sector have come forward, but “the people who have come forward have said no, it has not been done”. “People are quite scared to ask as well because it can have repercussions on their employment or their relationships [at work],” she added. Read full story Source: The Pharmaceutical Journal, 29 May 2020
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Content ArticleThe procedure describes immediate action to ensure patient safety, grading of errors (where appropriate) and longer term actions to ensure that individuals, team, group and organisation can learn from errors. This policy is specifically written for all registered staff involved in the prescribing, dispensing, administering or monitoring of medication. The policy is also relevant for managers of such staff and gives instruction for managing staff who have been involved in a medication error.
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Content ArticleThis is a template that can be used by health professionals carrying out medicines reconciliation.
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