Impact of a Ward Pharmacy Technician
Published Date: 19th July 2016
Publication Authors: Brancaleone CP, Brough S
The impact of clinical pharmacists in terms of intervening in drug therapy and reducing medication errors to improve patient outcomes has been described. In addition, pharmacy technicians have in part enabled the expansion of clinical pharmacy services by taking a more active role in patient care such as undertaking patients’ drug histories on the wards. However, little is known about the impact of pharmacy technicians’ activities on clinical pharmacy services.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a pharmacy technician on a medical admissions unit (MAU) in terms of the proportion of patients having a pharmacist-led intervention as well as the number and clinical significance of pharmacist interventions.
Ethical approval was obtained from the NHS National Research Ethics Service through the Proportionate Review sub-committee.
The study was undertaken in a 16-bed MAU unit in a hospital Trust in the North West of England. The sample population consisted of two independent groups of newly admitted patients. In the control group, the pharmacist provided both clinical and non-clinical pharmacy services. In the intervention group, the pharmacist was assisted by a pharmacy technician who provided the non-clinical services. All patients admitted to the ward were included until the required sample population of 116 patients per group was reached. All interventions made by the pharmacist were documented and then classified using a validated method into categories of drug-related problems (DRP’s). Four healthcare professionals retrospectively assessed the clinical significance of all the pharmacist interventions using a validated method.
In the control group, 58 patients had a pharmacist intervention compared to 78 patients in the intervention group (P = 0.008). Patients in the control group had a total of 91 interventions compared to 141 in the intervention group (P = 0.001). The inter-professional agreement of the intervention scoring was poor. There was no statistically significant difference between the two study groups in the mean clinical significance of pharmacist interventions (P = 0.371). Half of the interventions regarded medicines reconciliation. The most common type of intervention was when a drug/s had to be added to the patient’s prescribed drug regimen. The least common intervention category was ‘change time of administration’. Nearly two-thirds (62.1%) of pharmacist interventions were of moderate clinical significance and 35.3% were classified as of minor significance. A tiny minority were of major clinical significance. The distribution of the interventions as per clinical significance in both groups was similar. DRP’s involving therapeutic drug monitoring had the highest mean significance score.
The presence of a pharmacy technician on a medical admissions unit offers a significant positive impact on a clinical pharmacy service in terms of the proportion of admitted patients with a pharmacist intervention as well as the number of pharmacist interventions. It is suggested that this arose because the pharmacist could spend more time on direct patient care. However, the proportion of interventions accepted and their clinical significance was not affected.
Brancaleone, CP; Brough, S; Krska, J; Morecroft, CW. (2013). Evaluating the impact of a ward pharmacy technician on clinical pharmacist interventions in a medical admissions unit . International Journal of Pharmacy Practice. 21 (Supplement S1), 22.
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