scholarly journals The Impact of Electronic Prescribing on the Professionalization of Community Pharmacists: A Qualitative Study of Pharmacists’ Perception

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aude Motulsky ◽  
Nancy Winslade ◽  
Robyn Tamblyn ◽  
Claude Sicotte

Purpose. To understand how the technology of electronic prescription (e Rx) can transform the community pharmacist’s role through its effects on professionalization. We define professionalization as a pharmaceutical practice centred on clinical activities and made possible by the establishment of professional pharmaceutical services. Methods. We asked 12 community pharmacists who had participated in an e Rx pilot project in the Canadian province of Quebec to fill out a qualitative survey on their experience. We then analyzed the pharmacists’ perceptions of this new technology using a conceptual framework based on the Davenport typology that presents an exhaustive list of mechanisms, specific to Information Technologies, and thus e-Rx, that can potentially modify information management process and then the role of pharmacists. Results. The pharmacists identified five main mechanisms by which e Rx could affect the professionalization of community pharmacists: analytical capabilities of the pharmacist and physician, dissemination of knowledge, integration of process tasks, process automation and elimination of intermediaries. These mechanisms can assist pharmacists in exercising their professional judgement by improving the quality of available information and facilitate the execution of prescriptions by improving the quality of orders. E Rx technology can also strengthen pharmacists’ credibility as medication specialists in the eyes of both patients and physicians. Thus, e Rx can become a collaborative technology to the extent that it improves collaboration between community pharmacists and prescribing physicians. However, the potential benefits of this technology would appear to depend on its characteristics and how prescribing physicians use it. Conclusions. E-Rx proposes ways of working and communicating that were previously unimaginable. These new possibilities pave the way for transformations that can significantly increase the professionalization of community pharmacists. The results of this study indicate that community pharmacists have a favourable opinion of e Rx, believing it can be an ally in their professionalization.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e001047
Author(s):  
Asam Latif ◽  
Nargis Gulzar ◽  
Fiona Lowe ◽  
Theo Ansong ◽  
Sejal Gohil

BackgroundQuality improvement (QI) involves the use of systematic tools and methods to improve the quality of care and outcomes for patients. However, awareness and application of QI among healthcare professionals is poor and new strategies are needed to engage them in this area.ObjectivesThis study describes an innovative collaboration between one Higher Educational Institute (HEI) and Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) to develop a postgraduate QI module aimed to upskill community pharmacists in QI methods. The study explores pharmacist engagement with the learning and investigates the impact on their practice.MethodsDetails of the HEI–LPCs collaboration and communication with pharmacist were recorded. Focus groups were held with community pharmacists who enrolled onto the module to explore their motivation for undertaking the learning, how their knowledge of QI had changed and how they applied this learning in practice. A constructivist qualitative methodology was used to analyse the data.ResultsThe study found that a HEI–LPC partnership was feasible in developing and delivering the QI module. Fifteen pharmacists enrolled and following its completion, eight took part in one of two focus groups. Pharmacists reported a desire to extend and acquire new skills. The HEI–LPC partnership signalled a vote of confidence that gave pharmacists reassurance to sign up for the training. Some found returning to academia challenging and reported a lack of time and organisational support. Despite this, pharmacists demonstrated an enhanced understanding of QI, were more analytical in their day-to-day problem-solving and viewed the learning as having a positive impact on their team’s organisational culture with potential to improve service quality for patients.ConclusionsWith the increased adoption of new pharmacist’s roles and recent changes to governance associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, a HEI–LPC collaborative approach could upskill pharmacists and help them acquire skills to accommodate new working practices.


Pharmacy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Amandeep Setra ◽  
Yogini Jani

Accurate and complete prescriptions of insulin are crucial to prevent medication errors from occurring. Two core components for safe insulin prescriptions are the word ‘units’ being written in full for the dose, and clear documentation of the insulin device alongside the name. A retrospective review of annual audit data was conducted for insulin prescriptions to assess the impact of changes to the prescribing system within a secondary care setting, at five time points over a period of 7 years (2014 to 2020). The review points were based on when changes were made, from standardized paper charts with a dedicated section for insulin prescribing, to a standalone hospital wide electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system, and finally an integrated electronic health record system (EHRS). The measured outcomes were compliance with recommended standards for documentation of ‘units’ in full, and inclusion of the insulin device as part of the prescription. Overall, an improvement was seen in both outcomes of interest. Device documentation improved incrementally with each system change—34% for paper charts, 23%–56% for standalone ePMA, and 100% for ePMA integrated within EHRS. Findings highlight that differences in ePMA systems may have varying impact on safe prescribing practices.


Author(s):  
V. P. Lysenko ◽  
I. S. Chernova

Annotation Purpose. Improving the efficiency of entomophages production by developing innovative approaches for it management. Methods. System approach, intelligent information technologies. Results. Innovative approaches for it management of entomophages production have been developed, which consist of: determining and ranking the factors that have the greatest impact on the quality of entomological products, and factors that lead to substandard products; the creation of structural and parametric complexes for assessing product quality; real-time assessment of the intensity of entomocultures development processes; automation of management abiotic parameters stepwise development of insects (temperature and relative humidity of the box for growing of insects) in real time; determining the quality of entomological products in conditions of incomplete information, taking into account the impact of a combination of abiotic and biotic production parameters; calculation of optimal values of production parameters in conditions of uncertainty; systematization of knowledge about the interaction of heterogeneous parameters in the production of entomophages. Conclusions. The proposed innovative approaches to manage the production of entomophages can increase its efficiency by forming optimal management strategies, using the technological experience of specialists and modern intelligent information technologies in particular, SCADA-systems, fuzzy logic theory and cognitive analysis. Keywords: innovative approaches, production of entomophages, intelligent information technologies.


Author(s):  
Patricia Whitley ◽  
Hossain Shahriar ◽  
Sweta Sneha

Through a literary review of recent research, this paper examines the mixed impact of health information technology (HIT) on patient care, medical errors, and the quality of healthcare delivery in selected hospital settings such as emergency departments. Specific technologies examined include the electronic health record (EHR), medical devices, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The paper identifies that some healthcare technologies are increasingly valuable in reducing medical errors, improving healthcare quality, and in producing better patient-centered outcomes. It also determines that technologies have complicated the delivery of quality patient care, increased the incidences of clinician burnout, and made receiving quality healthcare in America's hospital systems possibly less sure. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving HIT's implementations and confirms the need for further evaluation of the impact of HIT in increasing patient safety and clinician well-being.


Author(s):  
Izabella Lejbkowicz

The exponential development of Information Technologies revolutionized healthcare. A significant aspect of this revolution is the access to health information in the Internet. The Internet World Stats estimates that 56.8% of the world population used the Internet in March 2019, an increase of 1,066% from 2000. According to The Pew Research Center survey of 2012 81% of Americans used the internet and 72% of them searched for health information. Even though there is a lack in more recent data on the percentage of online health information seekers, it is clear that this trend is on the rise. This chapter focuses on the characteristics of the search for online health information by patients and providers, investigates features related to the quality of health web sites, and discusses the impact of these searches on healthcare.


Author(s):  
Ming Ming Wen ◽  
Heba Aref ◽  
Ahmad Abozaid ◽  
Nahla Hesham Kandil ◽  
Yasmin Hussein Elsobky

Objective: The first objective of this work was to examine the services provided by six drug information centers (DICs) in Alexandria, Egypt. The second objective was to evaluate the quality of the replies to the drug information query. The third objective was to assess the conceptual need of DICs from community pharmacists, other health care professionals and the general public.Methods: This study was conducted through three stages. Stage I was a field survey to assess predefined parameters in the current DICs in Alexandria. Stage II was a retrospective cross-sectional study to assess the quality of the drug information replies through an external expert review process. Stage III was a population survey and thematic analysis using questionnaires and interview recording.Results: Activities of DICs include: DIR answering service (100%), adverse drug reaction reporting (100%), issuing bulletins (83.3%), education (83.3%), drug use evaluation (50%) and participation in P and T committees (33.3%). The most frequent question categories asked were dosing, side effects, treatment guidelines and drug interactions. Half of the DICs were affiliated with hospitals; however, a general lacking confidence level of these DICs on the professionalism and the impact on patient care for the DIC services provided was identified. There was an obvious problem in formatting the ultimate question in a question format rather than a sentence format in all DICs. The most accurately answered request was adverse drug reactions. All surveyed groups considered that it is very important to have a DIC accessible to the community free of charge.Conclusion: It is necessary to establish an university-based DIC to incorporate training, education and research into the existing services. A DIC network with definitive standards of services in the future should provide safe and effective quality-assured pharmaceutical care to meet the needs and expectations of the community and improve its delivery to the public. The results and recommendations of this study can be inspired and generalized to other developing countries that have similar health systems as in Egypt. 


Author(s):  
SUNIL JAWLA ◽  
Durg Vijay Rai

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are transforming health services throughout the world. Health information and technologies (HITs) involve application of information processing using computer for storage, retrieval, sharing and use of information and knowledge for communication by a pharmacist. Similarly electronic prescription (EP) services have made the dispensing and reimbursement processes more efficient. Maintenance of patient record become easy by using ICTs. Barcode identification of medicines can be used to reduce medicine administration errors and to improve the medication history of patients. Telecare using digital communications technology provides healthcare consultations and other health care services to rural, old & handicap patients easily and improves their access to healthcare by reducing their hospital attendance. In developing countries like India, it is quite a challenging task to provide access to information and communication technologies. As the geographical diversity is also a challenging for implementation of ICTs at everywhere. Information and technologies are giving a way to access the data all over the globe. ICTs have brought transformation in education in all over the world. Information and technologies are removing barriers from learning education. ICT applications are becoming indispensable tools for traditional and vocational education. In the field of pharmaceutical sciences, ICTs can further enhance the quality of education. As lots of modifications and newer drugs are coming in the market, it is quite a challenging task to a pharmacist to update knowledge to serve the society in an efficient way. ICT can be utilized in health care to improve quality of patient centric services.


Author(s):  
Ameen M. Almohammadi ◽  
Huda M. Al-Dhahri ◽  
Shroug H. Al-Harbi

Aims: There are series of medical errors that can be prevented by taking precautions.             Therefore, the study evaluates the impact of the electronic prescribing system on prescription errors. Study Design:  A pre-post study design was conducted. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at outpatient pharmacy services of a teaching hospital in Jeddah city. Methodology: Prescriptions were evaluated for the presence of the essential prescription elements such as patient information, drug name, dose, frequency, strength, and other prescription completeness parameters. Results: In the pre-intervention study, 1182 handwritten prescriptions were evaluated, and 6627 errors were detected from these prescriptions. The length of the pre-and post-intervention period was two weeks each. The most prevalent prescribing errors were that of medications written without defined dosage forms were recorded 1653 (55.90%) time followed by prescriptions written by trade names 1493 (22.5%), without route of administration 1266 (19.1%), and without specified duration 1009 (15.2%). However, 1512 prescriptions were evaluated in the post-intervention study, among which 339 errors were detected. The errors included prescriptions written without diagnosis (5.09%), or without doctor’s name or stamp (1.52%), written by trade names (4.49%), without defined dosage forms (4.29%), and without specified duration (2.84%). Conclusion: The study concluded that E-prescribing eliminated prescription errors that resulted from handwritten prescriptions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 3681-3688
Author(s):  
Rapitos Sidiq ◽  
Noni Zakiah ◽  
Vonna Aulianshah ◽  
Amelia Sari ◽  
Rasidah . ◽  
...  

Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) is one of the health information systems that support the recording of medication from physicians based on computer technology. This system is used as Clinical Decision Support (CDS). The utilization of CPOE can decrease the rate of medication error so that its existence becomes one of health care quality indicator. In Indonesia, the application of this system is still rare, due to several constraints, ranging from the connectivity of the systems between units / between departments within a hospital. Regionalal General Hospital (RSUD) of Dr. Zainoel Abidin Banda Aceh is one of the hospitals that once applied this system, but in the course of this system could not run properly. This study was aimed to determine the acceptance behavior of electronic prescription information system. Informant   of the research were doctors at specialist polyclinics counted 32 people. Data were collected on August 25th 2016 until September 9th, 2016. The data retrieval was done by two stages of questionnaire and detailed interview. Data were analyzed by content analysis and coding and data validity by triangulation. The results showed that the informant   welcome the application of electronic prescribing system, however, there was still much have to be improved especially in terms of support of all levels of management, so that users would feel the new system really help simplify the service and improve the quality of service to the patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-40
Author(s):  
I.B. Omel’chenko ◽  
◽  
V.K. Koshkina ◽  
K.Yu. Chudinov ◽  
◽  
...  

Digital technologies are being actively introduced into our life and economy that it is often impossible to track all innovations and the resulting effect of their appearance; the population quickly adapts and gets used to them. Similar trends are observed in the public sector. Visitors to clinics, museums, Multifunctional Public Services Centers, and other institutions easily use an electronic system that puts a queue to a specialist, use various services and gadgets. Due to digitalization, remote work is gaining more popularity, especially among young people, pensioners and women. The remote work market plays a very important role in the modern economy. As an extremely complex distribution mechanism, it ensures the connection of workers to remote workplaces. Thus, it affects both productivity and growth rates, as well as many other parameters of the economy as a whole. Digitalization is becoming such an important factor in increasing labor productivity and improving the quality of life that the changes taking place in the market are considered as the onset of a new stage of economic development. Currently, the development of digitalization is primarily associated with the introduction of digital communication technologies, the platform for which is the Internet and mobile devices. Information technologies are being integrated into all spheres of economic activity. In this regard, the nature of labor, as well as labor functions are undergoing dramatic changes, the proportion of work performed remotely or using specialized software is increasing. In this regard, the work intensity (provision of services) requires attention, which directly depends on the updating of the methodology of labor rationing. Within the framework of this article, the methodological foundations of labor rationing in the public sector are analyzed, considering the impact of digitalization and automation processes on labor rationing.


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