Hospital pharmacists lead the way in Care Awards
Anita Hogg with her award |
An integrated medicines management service piloted at three hospitals in Northern Ireland has won one of the Pharmaceutical Care Awards sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline for 2003 for Anita Hogg and colleagues.
The service involves a medication history being taken at admission, with
information obtained from the patient, GP and community pharmacist. The
pharmacist also prepares the discharge prescription, which is faxed to
the GP and community pharmacist. Another part of the service involves
the standardisation of products across the primary and secondary care
sector, so that patients will not receive different brands.
The project is the first randomised, controlled study in the UK to assess
a cross-sector approach to improving medicines management.
A conference report on p295 outlines how the project team were able to
obtain the funds to pursue this project.
A lithium database and recall service developed by Stephen Bazire, pharmacy
services director, and Bren Holmes, lithium database manager, Hellesdon
Hospital, Norwich, also won a Pharmaceutical Care Award. A register of
all patients who consent and who are taking lithium is kept at the trust.
The database sends reminders to patients to ensure that their lithium
levels are checked quarterley. If two reminders have been sent out, but
no test result has been received, the GP is alerted and advised of the
risks of continuing to prescribe lithium.
The other winner of a Pharmaceutical Care Award was Andrew Prowse, transplant
outpatient pharmacist, Oxford Transplant Centre, Churchill Hospital and
David Scott, lecturer in pharmacy, John Radcliffe Hospital, for a project
where a pharmacist was based in an organ transplant clinic.
A new service was developed with home delivery of drugs for outpatients,
with a pharmacist providing patient counselling and making interventions
within the clinic. The pharmacist had access to medical records and laboratory
results. Over a four-month period, 41 per cent of pharmacist consultations
led to an intervention. Patients and staff supported the new service
and 98 per cent of patients who answered a questionnaire expressed a
preference for the home delivery of drugs.
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Hospital Pharmacist