Medicine Optimisation
Good communication between healthcare professionals is essential to keep patients safe. This is particularly true when patients are transferred between different care providers. Patients must be included in the dialogue where possible especially when their safety relies on good compliance and concordance. A simple change of dosage form may help if a patient cannot swallow. New technologies are being used in some locations to help improve communication e.g. Tele-pharmacy and Tele-nursing.
High risk settings and high risk medications should alert all Healthcare professionals to think about who, what and how they should communicate essential medication information to maximise their benefits and minimise the risk of adverse effects.
Pharmacists should think about what records they are keeping of their interventions and audit them, look for trends and recurring themes. The New Medicine Service reinforces how key the pharmacist’s role is as they have the patient’s ear and they are experts in medicines. This is crucial for medicines optimisation.
Pharmacist must consult with their local healthcare professionals and professional networks (LPNs) to ensure their voice is heard and if possible a pharmacist should sit within their clinical team to help commission new services.
Are your records ready for inspection? Do you record your interventions? Do you record your incidents do you share best practice and learn from your root cause analysis? Which other stakeholders do you communicate with?
Pharmacy Consulting can help you to improve your communication, record keeping and audit thus helping you improve your practice keep your patients safe and optimise their medicines.
