Question that many community pharmacists cant answer

[andrew paxton]

theres no point taking the risk as you could go for nitrofuarntoin.

Anyway, my point is no one asks what meds are you on during the taking in rx bit. The techs won't necessarily mention it either during labelling. Maybe our retail counterparts can shed some light...

Any decent PMR system will bring up an interaction warning about this. The SOPs are supposed to insist that such interactions must be brought to the attention of the Pharmacist. Then the Pharmacist should do something about it. TWO potential shortcomings to that: 1) will the labeller do so, and 2) will the pharmacist react appropriately? Part of the problem is that virtually all reported problems get flashed up - a case of the boy that cried 'Wolf!'

[Pharmanaut]

One thought - with EPSR2 (when it eventually comes along).
Provided ....
1. Its a regular patient/customer; so a reasonably complete patient history.
2. The system can do patient matching as the data is sufficiently accurate to match up without intervention.

As soon as the prescription arrives in the pharmacy it could start the automated clinical checks and flag up the alerts for clinical checking before the script is even dispensed.

[andrew paxton]

One thought - with EPSR2 (when it eventually comes along).
Provided ....
1. Its a regular patient/customer; so a reasonably complete patient history.
2. The system can do patient matching as the data is sufficiently accurate to match up without intervention.

As soon as the prescription arrives in the pharmacy it could start the automated clinical checks and flag up the alerts for clinical checking before the script is even dispensed.

Don't get me started on that! EPS needs a thread for itself. If I could only get all the stores I work in to use it (Mostly Boots till end this year!) I may consider it's worth factoring in in patient safety issues. As it is, only Rowlands in my experience are anything like ready for EPS.

[LeftArm]

Complete patient history should be provided by the summary care records (SCR) however access by pharmacy to this has been put on hold.
Patient matching on EPS is done by NHS number. If the number is correct then patient matching can be done without intervention.
If the number is wrong however...
Don't forget that even with an automated system the pharmacist is legally responsible.

[andrew paxton]

See my post on the IT forum, entitled 'things we would like Cedegim to consider' or words to that effect