Community pharmacists’ interventions with electronic prescriptions in England: an exploratory study

Franklin, Bryony Dean; Reynolds, Matthew; Hibberd, Ralph; Sadler, Stacey; Barber, Nick

doi:10.1007/s11096-013-9853-1

Cited by 12 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(4 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nevertheless, the accuracy of the electronic prescription will be to some extent determined by the design of the GP system and the pharmacy patient medication record system. Previously, there have been instances where the dm+d code has been anomalous in EPS, or where the dosage instructions have been generated with Latin abbreviations, which have then been transferred to the label, and have confused the patient (Franklin et al, 2013 ). This problem has been, in part, dealt with by system usability and configuration changes, and the ultimate development of a standard for dose syntax will be a major development.…”

Section: Benefits Of the Connected Community Pharmacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A previous UK survey of public, prescriber and pharmacist perceptions of eTP has described the security and confidentiality of patient information in the pharmacy setting, as a possible cause for concern (Porteous et al, 2003 ). Prevention of prescriptions that are unsigned, and therefore illegal (Franklin et al, 2013 ). Workflow efficiencies in community pharmacies.…”

Section: Benefits Of the Connected Community Pharmacymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Connected Community Pharmacy: Benefits for Healthcare and Implications for Health Policy

Goundrey-Smith

2018

Front. Pharmacol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The need for interoperability of healthcare Information Technology (IT) systems in order to provide safe, efficient, and coordinated healthcare is universally recognized. Various health economies, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, are seeking to develop regional, state-wide, or national systems of healthcare interoperability. In England, the community pharmacy network is a significant health provider, with important implications for provision of healthcare in deprived areas because of its accessibility. Historically, however, community pharmacies have operated on a silo basis, and have not shared information on their activities with, or been able to access information from, other National Health Service (NHS) healthcare providers. The development of services such as the Electronic Prescription Service and the Summary Care Record in England have helped to connect community pharmacy with the NHS infrastructure, and more comprehensive systems and datasets are proposed to integrate community pharmacy with the NHS in future. This paper will review the benefits of the connected community pharmacy, based on developments to date and reviewing evidence from other countries. It will describe some of the future developments that will support the connected community pharmacy in England, and discuss some of the implications for pharmacists and health policy makers.

show abstract

Section: Benefits Of the Connected Community Pharmacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Benefits Of the Connected Community Pharmacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Connected Community Pharmacy: Benefits for Healthcare and Implications for Health Policy

Goundrey-Smith

2018

Front. Pharmacol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At the pharmacies, abbreviations require pharmacists’ manual intervention and they have to be written out so that the dosage instructions and instructions for use are clear and comprehensible to the patient. This causes much additional work for pharmacists and may hinder easy and efficient dispensing . At worst, the use of abbreviations could lead to misinterpretations and human errors in editing, which in turn could endanger medication safety .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This causes much additional work for pharmacists and may hinder easy and efficient dispensing. [6,34,44,45] At worst, the use of abbreviations could lead to misinterpretations and human errors in editing, which in turn could endanger medication safety. [13,46] On the other hand, anomalies in dosage instructions that are most likely to endanger medication safety usually relate to missing, unclear or conflicting information and not directly to the use of abbreviations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic prescription anomalies: a study of frequencies, clarification and effects in Finnish community pharmacies

Timonen

Kangas

Kauppinen

et al. 2018

J Pharm Health Serv Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives To investigate the frequency of e‐prescriptions containing prescription anomalies (=errors, ambiguities and other shortcomings), and the types of e‐prescription anomalies occurring in Finnish community pharmacies. Further objectives were to investigate how these anomalies were clarified, together with the time required, as well as the effects such anomalies had in the pharmacies concerned. Methods During the 3‐day study period in 2017, 54 community pharmacies reported all e‐prescription anomalies found by pharmacists during medicine dispensing. Key findings Of the 41 170 e‐prescriptions dispensed during the study period, 2978 (7.2%) contained anomalies. The most common anomalies were the fact that the dosage instructions were written using abbreviations (63.7%) and that the purpose of the medicine was missing altogether (28.4%). In most cases where the e‐prescription contained anomalies (85.9%) the anomalies were clarified. Most anomalies were clarified at the pharmacy by writing out the abbreviations in the dosage instructions (69.6%) or with the customer (23.4%). The average time taken by pharmacists to clarify the anomalies was 1.8 min per e‐prescription. Anomalies caused problems in 39.6% of the cases. Most often, the anomalies increased the pharmacy's workload (55.9%) and it took longer to serve the customer (51.4%). Conclusions E‐prescription anomalies are quite common in Finland, indicating that there is a need to improve the quality of e‐prescribing. The e‐prescribing system should be further developed to encourage prescribers to issue more complete e‐prescriptions and in this way improve medication safety and make medicine dispensing easier and more efficient.

show abstract

“…Since pharmacy technicians are the first personnel in community pharmacies to handle processing of prescriptions and the high rate of e-prescription errors encountered, it is important to explore how the characteristics of pharmacy technicians influence patient safety. Previous research on e-prescriptions in England has investigated types of errors encountered in community pharmacies along with implications for increasing efficiency in the process, such as keeping databases used by dispensing systems updated [ 31 , 32 ]. Examining the processes involved in preventing, identifying and resolving e-prescription errors in the United States could inform efforts at community pharmacies to prevent e-prescription errors from happening, identify e-prescription errors when they do happen, and fix e-prescription errors in an efficient and effective manner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hidden Role of Community Pharmacy Technicians in Ensuring Patient Safety with the Use of E-Prescribing

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives It has been reported that supportive personnel, such as pharmacy technicians, are key participants in the use of health information technology. The purpose of this study was to describe how pharmacy technicians use e-prescribing and to explore the characteristics of technicians that support pharmacists in ensuring patient safety. Methods This was a qualitative study that used observations, interviews, and focus groups to understand the role of pharmacy technicians in e-prescribing. Fourteen pharmacy technicians and 13 pharmacists from five community pharmacies participated. Observations lasted about nine hours in each pharmacy. Follow-up interviews and two separate focus groups were later conducted. Observation field notes and audio recordings were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Results Pharmacy technicians were primarily responsible for all steps leading up to pharmacist review of the e-prescription and dispensing of medications to the patient. Technician characteristics, including experience, certification status, and knowledge of appropriate medication use, were reported as important factors in supporting a pharmacist’s role in ensuring patient safety with the use of e-prescribing. Conclusion Study findings indicate that pharmacy technicians have an important role in supporting pharmacists to prevent medication errors. Certain characteristics of pharmacy technicians were identified with the potential to improve the e-prescription medication dispensing process and decrease patient harm through the identification and resolution of errors.

show abstract

Community pharmacists’ interventions with electronic prescriptions in England: an exploratory study

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

The Connected Community Pharmacy: Benefits for Healthcare and Implications for Health Policy

The Connected Community Pharmacy: Benefits for Healthcare and Implications for Health Policy

Electronic prescription anomalies: a study of frequencies, clarification and effects in Finnish community pharmacies

The Hidden Role of Community Pharmacy Technicians in Ensuring Patient Safety with the Use of E-Prescribing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About