Pharmacists could save health service up to €32m
Problems that were averted by pharmacists - Incorrect dose, Wrong drug strength, Wrong product prescribed, Medicine unavailable.
Thousands of medicine-related problems which require a patient to be admitted to hospital can be avoided when pharmacists intervene to correct mistakes, according to a new study.
The researchers from the School of Pharmacy in Trinity College estimated each pharmacist in the country could prevent as many as 207 of these admissions among their own customers and save the health service €32m.
They looked at 18,974 prescriptions dispensed at a pharmacy over six months, an average of 127 per day.
Most of their customers were medical-card holders and they accounted for 95pc of the pharmacist's interventions.
There was a prescribing error in as many as three quarters of the 994 prescriptions they had to take action on.
One in 10 involved a clerical error and there were also drug and patient-related reasons for the problem.
In nearly a quarter the incorrect dose was prescribed and in 14.5pc the wrong strength was involved. Other issues involved discontinued products being prescribed, drug duplication and incorrect data.
"The majority of the problems could be solved through interaction with patients alone but 28pc required prescriber involvement," said researchers Fearghal O'Nia and Sheila Ryder.
Prescribers had to be contacted 269 times during the six-month study, either to ask for information or to inform them of the problem.
The nature of the interventions by the pharmacist included:
- Interviewing the patient
- Contacting their doctor
- Dispensing a more suitable dose
- Contacting hospital or ward
- Checking the reference book
- Counselling the patient.
Other measures included giving the patient practical instruction, referring them back to their doctor or consulting a fellow pharmacist.
The average time spent on each was around five-and-a-half minutes, although the more serious issues required longer.
It led to around 596 prescriptions not being filled, which amounted to a saving for the State of €10,839.
If the pharmacist had not intervened it is estimated treatment failure could have happened for 18 customers and they were at risk of a new medical problem.
Combining the decision not to dispense the medicine and preventing the patient getting more ill means if all pharmacists took this action the State would save €32m a year from medical-card patients alone.
- Eilish O'Regan
Irish Independent
