Community Pharmacists’ Perceptions of Care Following the Implementation of a Transitions-of-Care Program

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 586-591
Author(s):  
Jove Graham ◽  
Lorraine D. Tusing ◽  
Christina M. Gregor ◽  
Eric A. Wright

Background: Pharmacist-led collaborative interventions can support improved medication use and adherence during transitions of care (TOC). Community pharmacists are not always actively connected with other health-care team professionals, however, and their confidence in having necessary information may vary. Objective: To assess community pharmacists’ perceptions of information, care provided, and communication, before and after a postdischarge intervention designed to increase communication between inpatient and community pharmacists. Methods: A survey assessing 4 domains related to pharmacists’ perceptions of information and care of hospital discharge patients was developed and distributed to 106 community pharmacists before and after a TOC interventional study. Results: Based on 151 responses (77 baseline, 74 followup) from 84 participants, community pharmacists have high confidence in their ability to counsel and feel that they are an important part of the healthcare team. They are less confident that they have adequate information about patients and report gaps in having adequate support and resources to provide care. When a TOC intervention was implemented, there was significant improvement in community pharmacists’ feeling of having adequate information about the patients. Conclusion: Not having adequate information regarding patients discharged from the hospital is an area of concern for community pharmacists and a modifiable opportunity to improve TOCs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 3286-3292
Author(s):  
Kumaraguru Anbalagan ◽  
Shanmugasundaram P

Pharmacovigilance promotes the safe and effective use of medicines and thereby optimizes the treatment quality. However, lack of awareness among community pharmacists towards pharmacovigilance decreases the proportion of adverse drug reactions reported and impairs the signal detection process. Hence this study was designed to assess and promote the awareness and attitude of community pharmacists towards pharmacovigilance. This educational interventional study was carried out with 102 community pharmacists across Chennai. A pre-validated three domain-containing questionnaire, 20 items was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice before and after the educational intervention.  Knowledge, attitude and practices of community pharmacists towards pharmacovigilance was significantly increased after the educational intervention (P<0.05, 95%CI). Median difference in an overall score of knowledge and practice was observed to be 4 and 4.5, respectively.  Though the frequency of ADR reporting was not found to be greatly increased in our study, mass educational programs with adequate sampling intervals are needed to strengthen the signal generation process.


Pharmacy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Amina Abubakar ◽  
Jessica Sinclair

Remote physiologic monitoring (RPM) services involve the transmission of patient-collected physiologic data to the healthcare team. These data are then analyzed to determine what changes may be needed to enhance patient care. While pharmacists may not be recognized as billing providers through some payers, there are opportunities for pharmacist collaboration with providers to enhance patient access to RPM services. Community pharmacist services are traditionally tied to a product, but pharmacists are skilled in medication management, disease state evaluation, and patient counseling, which are skills that can contribute to an elevated RPM program.


2021 ◽  
pp. 105566562110217
Author(s):  
Alexis C. Wood ◽  
C. Alejandra Garcia de Mitchell ◽  
Ruchi Kaushik

Objective: Identify factors contributing to time a family spends in a Multidisciplinary Craniofacial Team Clinic (MDCT) and implement an intervention to reduce this time. Design: Interventional: a restructuring of clinics to serve those patients requiring fewer provider encounters separately. Setting: An American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association-accredited MDCT in an academic children’s hospital. Patients/Participants: One hundred sixty-seven patients with craniofacial diagnoses. Interventions: Time data were tabulated over ∼2 years. Following 9 months of data collection, patients requiring fewer provider encounters were scheduled to a separate clinic serving children with craniosynostosis, and data were collected in the same fashion for another 14 months. Main Outcome Measures: Principal outcome measures included total visit time and proportion of the visit spent without a provider in the room before and after clinic restructuring. Results: The average time spent by family in a clinic session was 161.53 minutes, of which 64.3% was spent without a provider in the room. Prior to clinic restructuring, a greater number of provider encounters was inversely associated with percentage of time spent without a provider ( P < .001). Upon identifying this predictor, scheduling patients who needed fewer provider encounters to a Craniosynostosis Clinic session resulted in reduction in absolute and percentage of time spent without a provider ( P < .001). Conclusions: The number of provider encounters is a significant predictor of the proportion of a clinic visit spent without a provider. Clinic restructuring to remove patient visits that comprise fewer provider encounters resulted in a greater percentage of time spent with a provider in an MDCT.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. e018499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anisha Patel ◽  
Andrea Rockall ◽  
Ashley Guthrie ◽  
Fergus Gleeson ◽  
Sylvia Worthy ◽  
...  

ObjectivesFollowing a diagnosis of cancer, the detailed assessment of prognostic stage by radiology is a crucial determinant of initial therapeutic strategy offered to patients. Pretherapeutic stage by imaging is known to be inconsistently documented. We tested whether the completeness of cancer staging radiology reports could be improved through a nationally introduced pilot of proforma-based reporting for a selection of six common cancers.DesignProspective interventional study comparing the completeness of radiology cancer staging reports before and after the introduction of proforma reporting.SettingTwenty-one UK National Health Service hospitals.Participants1283 cancer staging radiology reports were submitted.Main outcome measuresRadiology staging reports across the six cancers types were evaluated before and after the implementation of proforma-based reporting. Report completeness was assessed using scoring forms listing the presence or absence of predetermined key staging data. Qualitative data regarding proforma implementation and usefulness were collected from questionnaires provided to radiologists and end-users.ResultsElectronic proforma-based reporting was successfully implemented in 15 of the 21 centres during the evaluation period. A total of 787 preproforma and 496 postproforma staging reports were evaluated. In the preproforma group, only 48.7% (5586/11 470) of key staging items were present compared with 87.3% (6043/6920) in the postproforma group. Thus, the introduction of proforma reporting produced a 78% improvement in staging completeness . This increase was seen across all cancer types and centres. The majority of participants found proforma reporting improved cancer reporting quality for their clinical practice .ConclusionThe implementation of proforma reporting results in a significant improvement in the completeness of cancer staging reports. Proforma-based assessment of cancer stage enables objective comparisons of patient outcomes across centres. It should therefore become an auditable quality standard for cancer care.


Author(s):  
Pankajkumar B. Nimbalkar ◽  
Jaldhara N. Patel ◽  
Nilesh Thakor ◽  
Mansi Patni

Background: Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency in pregnancy and major contributory factor to maternal morbidity and mortality. Objective of present study was to assess knowledge of pregnant women regarding anaemia and its preventive measures before and after educational interventional training.Methods: The present study was an interventional study undertaken in purposively selected pregnant women attending the out patient Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of GMERS Medical College, Gandhinagar During the month of October 2017. Total 100 pregnant women were included after written informed consent. Baseline knowledge of pregnant women regarding anaemia and its preventive measures was assessed by pre-designed, pre-tested and semi structured questionnaire. Single educational interventional training for 45 minutes was given to selected pregnant women. Post– intervention knowledge of pregnant women for the same was assessed after training. Thus, collected data was analyzed /using Epi info 7.Results: Baseline knowledge of the pregnant women regarding causes, signs and symptoms of anemia and dietary sources of iron was 21%, 23% and 40% respectively which was significantly increased to 64%, 66% and 72% respectively after the intervention. Baseline knowledge of the pregnant women regarding factors which inhibit and increase iron absorption was 25% and 4% respectively which was significantly increased to 55% and 41 % respectively after the intervention. Baseline knowledge of the pregnant women regarding treatment of anaemia was 30% which was significantly increased to 79 % after the intervention.Conclusions: There was significant improvement in the knowledge regarding anaemia and its preventive measures among pregnant women after our single educational session.


Author(s):  
Sunee Lertsinudom ◽  
Pentipa Kaewketthong ◽  
Tamonwan Chankaew ◽  
Dujrudee Chinwong ◽  
Surarong Chinwong

This study aimed to report the effectiveness of community pharmacy smoking cessation services in 13 health regions in Thailand using a retrospective data-collecting method from the Foundation of Community Pharmacy database. The participants were smokers aged at least 18 years. The outcomes were the abstinence of smoking at least 30 consecutive days by self-report only and self-report with exhaled CO level <7 ppm (if available), the number of cigarettes smoked daily, exhaled carbon monoxide (exhaled CO), and % peak expiratory flow rate (%PEFR); smokers measured these outcomes before and after receiving the smoking cessation services. Of 58 community pharmacies, 532 smokers (93% male, mean age of 42.4 ± 14.9 years) received smoking cessation services from community pharmacists. Of 235 smokers with complete data, 153 (28.8%, 153/532) smokers reported smoking abstinence by self-report. The mean number of cigarettes smoked daily reduced from 15.3 ± 8.7 to 1.9 ± 3.8 cigarettes, p-value < 0.001. The exhaled CO levels of smokers significantly reduced from 11.7 ± 5.9 ppm to 7.2 ± 4.4 ppm, p-value < 0.001. The %PEFR also significantly increased from 84.2 ± 19.4 to 89.5 ± 19.5, p-value < 0.001. In conclusion, Thai community pharmacy smoking cessation services could aid smokers to quit smoking. This study is the outcome of the real-world community pharmacy smoking cessation service; policymakers should consider this service to be included in the national healthcare policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237796082110584
Author(s):  
Kashiko Fujii ◽  
Minna Stolt ◽  
Takuyuki Komoda ◽  
Mariko Nishikawa

Introduction An increasing number of older people with frailty in Japan use geriatric day care centers. Older people who have been certified as requiring long-term care attend centers during the day and receive nursing care help with bathing, excretion, meals, and functional training services. Many older people have foot problems with need foot care by nurses and care workers (NCWs) at geriatric day care centers. Objective This study explored the effects of NCWs’ foot-care programs on the foot conditions of older people attending daytime services. Methods A before-after intervention study was conducted at geriatric day care centers for older people, where the foot-care program was presented by NCWs for two months. The foot conditions of 23 clients (8 men, 15 women, mean age = 78.6 years, standard deviation = 9.2) were assessed before and after the program. Changes in foot condition and clients’ perceptions after the study were analyzed through descriptive statistics, McNemar, and paired t-tests. Results Although dramatic changes in foot conditions were not observed, some conditions were improved or maintained. Changes were observed in mean dry skin scores ( p < .01; right foot: 1.6→1.1, left foot: 1.6→1.1), skin lesions and long nails (skin lesions R: 0.2→0.1; long nail R: 1.4→1.0, L: 1.1→0.8), and edema (R: 43.5%→39.1%, L: 52.2%→47.8%). Further, clients started perceiving that foot health is important and discussed their feet with staff more often. Conclusion The NCWs’ foot-care program was effective in maintaining and improving foot health in older people and positively affected their perception of foot care.


Author(s):  
Cyril Breuker ◽  
Julie Teasdale ◽  
Louise Mallet ◽  
Geneviève Ricard ◽  
Jean-Philippe Turcotte ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Nisar Ahmed ◽  
Mohanta GP ◽  
Bhagat MP

The antimicrobial resistance has more impact on the health care division which would increase the mortality and hospital readmission duration. Our objective is to assess the community pharmacist’s knowledge on dispensing of antimicrobial drugs and prevention of antimicrobial resistance in community practice. A cross-sectional study was conducted for six months. A sample size of 150 registered community pharmacists participated in the study. We have used simple random techniques to select the community pharmacists. Questionnaire were distributed to the community pharmacists at pre and post visits and the response was analyzed. The collected data was analyzed using graph pad prism software. The mean and standard deviation was calculated and P<0.005 was considered to be statistically significant. For 25-30 years of age , community pharmacists were more 68 (45.33%) as compared to other ages. Pre visit before and after average mean antimicrobial resistance score was found to be 4.87. Proper implementation of antimicrobial resistance prevention programmes would drastically increases the rational use of antimicrobials could and minimizes the health care cost.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Savannah Hobbs ◽  
Morgan McCloskey ◽  
Savanah Elliott ◽  
Taren Swindle ◽  
Laura Bellows

Abstract Objectives To examine the quality of meals offered to children ages 3–5 years in parent packed lunches at a university-based early childhood center. Methods Using a protocol based on the Remote Food Photography Method, trained research staff used iPads to take before and after photos of preschoolers’ packed lunches over 1 week. Meal quality was assessed using the Healthy Meal Index (HMI) and Child and Adult Food Care Program (CACFP) standards. Photos were independently coded by 2 researchers for key meal details, including availability and type of fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy, which fed into established scoring criteria to generate a HMI adequacy score. The mean HMI adequacy score for all lunches and percentages of lunches containing each adequacy food group were calculated to assess total meal quality. Photos were also reviewed using CACFP standards for availability, type, and amount of foods offered. Researchers coded photos (k = .86) for the inclusion of 4 food groups (fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein; milk was not served), and serving sizes were visually estimated and compared with recommended CACFP serving sizes: 1.5 oz of protein and 0.25 c each of fruits, vegetables, and grains. Mean standardized servings offered to children were calculated from these standards. Results Lunches (n = 301) from 79 children were photographed (2-5 days/child). The mean HMI adequacy score was $\bar{\rm x}$ = 37.7 11.0 (out of 65), with a range of 15.0 to 65.0. For all meals, 89% contained a grain, 86% contained fruit, 75% contained dairy (non-milk), 60% contained protein, and 48% contained a vegetable. Compared to CACFP standards, lunches had an average of 2.77 0.78 food groups present out of 4. Standardized servings offered for grains ($\bar{\rm x}$ = 2.60 ± 1.49), fruits ($\bar{\rm x}$ = 1.89 ± 1.09), protein ($\bar{\rm x}$ = 1.42 ± .68), and vegetables ($\bar{\rm x}$ = 1.35 ± .74) were high when calculated based on recommended CACFP serving sizes. Conclusions In this study, parent packed lunches fell short of meeting CACFP guidelines by offering less than 3 of the recommended 4 food groups, with a large percentage of lunches containing grains, fruits, and dairy. Children were provided with larger amounts than recommended for all food groups, particularly for grains. Funding Sources Colorado State University Health Behaviors Lab.


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