Operation of the Simplified Protocol for Resolving Out-of-hospital Prescription Queries and Its Evaluation by Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

created a simplified 14-item protocol for resolving out-of-hospital prescription queries. The protocol was implemented in September 2016 in nine community pharmacies. If prescriptions were changed as per the new protocol or via typical query procedures, we asked community pharmacies to fax the changed prescriptions, and the hospital pharmacists, rather than medical doctors, modified the prescription history. To evaluate the effects of this simplified protocol, we examined the number of changed outpatient prescriptions and administered questionnaire surveys to community pharmacists and hospital-based medical doctors. The ratio of changed to total outpatient prescriptions decreased in January 2017 (4.1) compared with those in September 2016 (6.4). Ultimately, more than half of all outpatient prescriptions were changed by the protocol. Drug brand name changes accounted for 52 of the total changes during both September 2016 and January 2017, but the proportion of residual medicine adjustment increased from 12 in September 2016 to 26 in January 2017. Due to the questionnaire survey, 33 of surveyed medical doctors indicated that they knew or had heard of the protocol, and 54 responded that the protocol decreased the burden of addressing outpatient prescription queries. The community pharmacies reported that the burden of clarifying outpatient prescription queries decreased. In conclusion, implementation of the simplified protocol for outpatient prescription queries improved medical efficiency and may help promote cooperative streamlining of community patient pharmaceutical care services.