"The Pharmacy Technician's Role in Improving Patient

Experience"

HOW TO HAVE DIRECT PATIENT INVOLVEMENT

SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES Describe the mechanism and approaches

that can be used to improve patient experience.

Describe patient interventions undertaking during employment.

The future??

USING THE HEALTHCARE STRUCTURES & RESOURCES TEAM is a word that can be taken as a

pneumonic as below: T- Together- only as a unit can task be achieved. E- Evaluate- continually look at what you want to

achieve. A- Achieve- to arrive at target M- Maintain- to keep or better the set standard

USING THE HEALTHCARE STRUCTURES & RESOURCES 2 Take an active role in the ward area Multi-

disciplinary team (MDT), raising concerns or asking questions on behalf of a clinical pharmacist or the patient.

When assessing medicinal care, there are three elements which must overlap, these are, achieving the task, maintaining the patient’s awareness of their treatment and communicating with the MDT.

WHY ARE PHARM TECHS IN THIS EXTENDED ROLE To maintain Patients’ own drug schemes

according to localised policy. To assess and oversee self-administration. To provide discharge planning & liaison with

carers, nursing homes, district nurses, community pharmacies, General Practitioners and the patient.

To take accurate drug histories and medicines reconciliation.

WHY ARE PHARM TECHS IN THIS EXTENDED ROLE 2 To allow effective delivery of better patient

care, than a pharmacists alone could provide .

To provide a better experience for the patients, due to more interventions taking place. (Totton JS, Hunt P, Pritchard K. Joint-effort clinical pharmacy services in rural hospitals. Can J Hosp Pharm.

2008;61(2):133–137). 

HOW DOES DELIVERY OF AN IMPROVED SERVICE OPERATE Holding regular team meetings to discuss and

implement ideas. Effectively communicating with patients,

introducing yourself, allaying their concerns about being in hospital.

Encouraging and facilitating MDT staff to engage with the patients over their medicines

Keep staff well informed on changes to trust/department or team dynamics

HOW DOES DELIVERY OF AN IMPROVED SERVICE OPERATE 2 Involve the patient as much as possible. Give clear instructions and guidance to be followed. Follow up on suggestions/requests made by others. Find the cause of common complaints and

eliminate them as quickly as possible. Use research and education for the continual

optimisation of pharmacy services.

PATIENT FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS 1 (PRISONS) PROBLEM: Patients not receiving meds in

a timely manner. INTERVENTION: An MMT conducting an

early morning chart collection and ordering service.

OUTCOME: Medicines to wings in a timely manner. Supply delays minimised.

PATIENT EXPERIENCE: Reduced anxiety and anger, thus better for all concerned.

PATIENT FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS 2 (PRISONS) PROBLEM: Late Friday afternoon a terminal cancer

patient arrives on hospital wing with 4 large carrier bags full of different medicines, in differing quantities, including Oxycontin and Oromorph.

No accompanying copy of patients PMR or valid prescription for supply of controlled drugs or administration of any of the 15 different medicines.

Nursing staff and Duty Doctor require assistance to reconcile the medicines with a treatment plan and assess the suitability of the patients own medicines (PODs).

Staff unable to retrieve information from System 1.

INTERVENTION: Established that all medicines were suitable for reuse and that each containers held the correct contents.

Then all medicines adjudged to be unsuitable for reuse were set aside for destruction.

Logged into System 1 and began to look for current medications lists and the patients treatment plan, to find very little information.

Ran a free text and a read code search to double check the correct medications were prescribed.

PATIENT FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS 2 (PRISONS)

PATIENT FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS 2 (PRISONS) Conducted a medicines reconciliation and

provided the duty doctor with a confirmed list of current medications to be charted.

Assisting nurses in receiving the controlled drugs into stock for the patient.

Pharmacy advised to re-order medications for Monday am.

OUTCOME: Duty Doctor charted medications accordingly.

Nursing staff able to administer medicines safely and timely over the weekend and beyond.

Patient experienced no delays in treatment or omitted doses, furthermore anxiety and distress minimised.

PATIENT FOCUSED INTERVENTIONS 2 (PRISONS)

THE FUTURE ?? Integration of MMTs within community MDTs,

to provide follow-up/review of medicine adherence after discharge as a reactive measure.

As a proactive measure to reduce the incidence of medicines-related admissions embed MMTs in locality assessment teams to address medicines issues for example concordance and side-effects,