By David Cousins
‘Validation instruments for community pharmacy. Pharmaceutical care for the third millennium’, by Lilian M. Azzopardi. Pp xiv+281. Price $39.95. Binghampton, NY: Pharmaceutical Products Press, 2000. ISBN 0 7890 1109 3.
Whereas quality control and quality assurance check that a process is operating
properly, validation proves that a process is achieving what it is intended
to do. The aim of this book is to describe validation tools that can be used
in community pharmacies to monitor standards of service provided and to measure
the impact of the pharmacist in a community setting.
The validation process is divided into two sections: the internal validation
process and the external validation process. Internal validation is by observation
and external validation is directed at the consumer and non-pharmacist members
of the health care team.
Internal validation tools include the setting of the community pharmacy, dispensing
a prescription, responding to symptoms, communication with patients, equipment
and professional services available. External validation tools include questions
relating to the following: attendance at the same pharmacy, satisfaction with
services offered, with the role of the pharmacist and staff, with specific professional
services offered, with the quality of advice and the perception of the pharmacist.
The validation tools were applied to 184 community pharmacies in Malta and the
results indicate that there are considerable areas for improvement and development
in these services which can now be revalidated at regular intervals, hopefully
to show how services from these community pharmacies will improve over time.
This book should be a required purchase for primary care pharmacy advisers who
in the future will be developing more local standards for community pharmacy
services as well as superintendent company pharmacists and individual community
pharmacists interested in better meeting the pharmaceutical needs of their local
populations.
Dr Azzopardi, who is lecturer in pharmacy practice in the faculty of medicine
and surgery at the University of Malta, tries to distinguish the validation
process from that of inspection from the government of professional organisations.
However, the book opens an intriguing debate as to why some of these validation
tools could not form part of the inspection process at some future date.
David Cousins is chief pharmacist at Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospital Trust and visiting professor of pharmacy at the University of Derby