A communication procedure between community pharmacists and primary care professionals resolves medication errors and other administrative issues

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to implement a communication procedure, with agreed-upon protocols, to resolve daily medication errors and other administrative issues that require communication between community pharmacists (CPs) and primary healthcare professionals (PHCPs).

Methods: A 6-month pilot study followed by a year-length principal study was carried out in the Donostialdea Integrated Healthcare Organisation (IHO). Afterwards, the project was extended to other IHOs. The CPs identified medication errors or other administrative issues that required communication with PHCPs, contacting the customer service staff by telephone for urgent problems and by email for non-urgent problems.

Key findings: In total, 49 community pharmacies participated in the study. A total of 1179 medication errors and other administrative issues were detected, and over 90% of problems were solved in less than 24 h (n = 1079, 91.5%). Email was the more frequently used communication method (n = 874, 74.1%), and the most prevalent problems were due to absent (n = 766, 65.0%) and expired (n = 226, 19.2%) electronic prescriptions. Most of the participants were satisfied with the programme.

Conclusion: The present communication procedure between CPs and PHCPs is an efficient tool to resolve a variety of challenges that occur in community pharmacies.

Keywords: community pharmacy; interdisciplinary communication; medication errors; primary healthcare professionals.