Responsibility, accountability and factors influencing provision of pharmacist transcription of discharge prescriptions
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2004Author
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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Objectives</jats:title> <jats:p>To investigate the legal issues concerning authorisation of pharmacist transcribed discharge prescriptions and the prevalence of formal protocols for such a service, and to identify the factors influencing the decision on whether to provide a pharmacist discharge prescription transcription service (PDPTS).</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Method</jats:title> <jats:p>Postal questionnaire survey of clinical pharmacy managers. The sample included one hospital in each of the acute trusts in the UK.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Key findings</jats:title> <jats:p>The questionnaire completion rate was 66% (135/206). Thirty-six per cent of pharmacy departments (49/135) reported that they offered a PDPTS. The majority of the pharmacy departments with a PDPTS required a medical practitioner to countersign the pharmacist-written prescription (65%) and had a formal protocol for their PDPTS (57%). Seven hospitals reported that they ‘sometimes’ asked the doctor to countersign/authorise the discharge prescription, and 10 hospitals reported that they did not ask the doctor to countersign/authorise the prescription. The most common reasons for implementing a PDPTS were to reduce delays in the discharge process (73%) and to reduce errors (50%). Among pharmacy departments with no plan to provide a PDPTS, the main reasons given for not developing this service were insufficient resources (62%) and preferentially developing other services (24%).</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title> <jats:p>There is currently no consensus upon authorisation requirements of pharmacist-written discharge prescriptions and the legal position is unclear. The hospital pharmacy departments that ‘sometimes’ request a medical practitioner's counter-signature raise clinical governance and medico-legal issues, especially if their practice deviates from trust policy. The reasons given for implementation of a PDPTS concur with those found in previous studies.</jats:p> </jats:sec>
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