Pharmacists Without Access to the EHR: Practicing with One Hand Tied Behind Our Backs

Abstract

Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the public, yet have the least amount of information from the electronic health record available to them. This lack of information makes ensuring that patients are receiving proper medications and monitoring for efficacy and safety a challenge, if not impossible in some situations. Having access to a national electronic health record would provide pharmacists with this needed information to truly engage with prescribers as fellow clinical experts in the field. Sharing prescription information for non-controlled substances would also decrease the likelihood of a patient receiving duplicative therapy from two prescribers or pharmacies that may not know what the other is doing. There are already examples of successful national data sharing including the Prescription drug Monitoring Program for controlled substances as well as the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. Therefore, our profession needs to push for nationwide access to patient electronic health records, which includes all healthcare providers. This will facilitate the inclusion of pharmacists in the optimization of the care of patients who need our expertise in managing their medication regimens as well as build better relationships with prescribing providers.

Understanding the Information Needs of Pharmacy Staff Using CancelRx: A Qualitative Study of the Use of Prescription E-cancellation

“…However, prior research has identified several limitations to the use of the “notes to pharmacy” feature, including (a) it is attached to a new prescription, not a prescription cancellation; (b) notes are persistent with a refill of a prescription, and thus may not be accurate over time; (c) the note may not be seen by pharmacy staff, who then risk missing critical information; and (d) the feature has been used to communicate less relevant or inappropriate information. 23 Furthermore, the voluntary nature of this free text feature means that, as highlighted by the participants in this study, it is inconsistently used by clinicians even when there is helpful information to be shared with pharmacy staff.…”

Usability Evaluation of a Community Pharmacy Health Information Exchange Interface Prototype

“…medications and resolve more medication therapy related problems [4][5][6][7][8][9]. This leads to improved patient care and decreased hospital admissions [5,7].…”

“…3 When community pharmacists have access to patient data from other HCPs, they are able to identify and prevent prescription errors, identify more discordant medications and resolve more medication therapy-related problems. [4][5][6][7][8][9] This leads to improved patient care and decreased hospital admissions. 5,7 Roberts et al found when community pharmacists have access to laboratory results, progress notes, medication diagnoses, and allergy information, 39% of medication therapy management consults can be completed without needing to contact other HCPs, increasing the efficiency of health care delivery.…”

Digital health

“…Not all hospital pharmacists are provided with access to (electronic) health records. As a result, ensuring that patients receive the proper medication, providing medication reconciliation services and monitoring the efficacy and safety of medicines by pharmacists is being hindered 8. Changes are needed across Europe to provide pharmacists with adequate access to patient information, especially since this access can help reduce patients’ risk of medication-related problems and improve the quality of their care 9.…”