Background Team based care has been used internationally to improve the delivery of best practice primary health care. The WentWest General Practice Pharmacist Project, involving the integration of pharmacists within general practice teams, was commissioned to improve medication management of general practice patients. A particular focus of the project was the performance of medication review to allow the detection and resolution of drug related problems (DRPs). Objective The objectives of this 6-month study (October 2016-March 2017) were to: (1) identify and classify the DRPs detected as a result of pharmacist activities within a general practice primary care setting. (2) compare the number of pharmacist recommendations and GP acceptance rates as a result of pharmacist patient consultations across multiple general practice sites. Setting 15 general practice primary care sites in Western Sydney NSW Australia. A multi-centre prospective observational study conducted over a 6-month period from October 2016 to March 2017. Main outcome measure Drug-related problems (DRPs). Results Six pharmacists recorded the results from 493 patient consultations. The pharmacists identified 1124 DRPs and made 984 recommendations, of which 685 (70%) were recorded as accepted by the GP. Conclusion Pharmacists have a valuable role to play in the detection and resolution of DRP as part of the general practice team.
Introduction:This process evaluation examined the circumstances affecting implementation, intervention design and situational context of the twelve week pilot phase of a project integrating five pharmacists into twelve general practice sites in Western Sydney.Description of Care Practice:This study used a mixed method study design using qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews and quantitative data collected by project pharmacists to analyse the process of the integrating pharmacists is general practice. Framework analysis of the interview transcripts was used to align the results with the key process evaluation themes of implementation, mechanism of impact and context. Preliminary quantitative data was used to provide implementation feedback and to support the qualitative findings.Results:The interventional design included three phases, patient recruitment and selection, the pharmacist consultation and the communication and recording of recommendations. A number of barriers and facilitators affecting implementation were identified. Insight into the situational context of the intervention was gained from examining the differences between individual pharmacists and between practice sites.Conclusion:Conducting a process evaluation in the pilot phase of an integrated care project can allow adjustments to be made to the project procedures to improve the effectiveness and reproducibility of the intervention going forward.
The Western Sydney Primary Health Network (PHN), WentWest, has been working to improve patient and health system outcomes by commissioning projects that enhance patient-focussed, team-based care. One such project is the WentWest General Practice Pharmacist Project, involving the integration of pharmacists within general practice sites. The aim of this study is to describe, classify and analyse recommendations made by pharmacists to GPs, resulting from patient consultations between pharmacists and patients in a general practice setting. This study was a multi-centre prospective observational study (April 2017–September 2017) investigating recommendations made by pharmacists integrated in a general practice setting. Thirteen general practice sites located in Western Sydney, NSW, Australia were involved in the study. The main outcome measures of this study include the classification of pharmacist recommendations and the percentage of those recommendations accepted by GPs. The pharmacists recorded the results from 618 patient consultations. These consultations resulted in 1601 recommendations of which 1404 (88%) were recorded as accepted. This study demonstrated that the recommendations made by pharmacists in general practice are well accepted by GPs and may lead to improvements in medication management and patient care.
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