Effective systems and processes are a key part of minimizing the risk of preventable medicine-related problems and ensuring best possible outcomes for care, according to newly released clinical guidelines from the Medicines Prescribing Centre of the U.K.-based National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The guidelines, developed by a multidisciplinary Guideline Development Group (GDG) of NICE staff, health professionals, and lay members, were designed to ensure that National Health Service patients get the best possible outcomes from their medicines.
“Relevant information about medicines should be shared with patients, and their family members or carers, where appropriate, and between health and social care practitioners when a person moves from one care setting to another, to support high-quality care,” wrote the authors of the guidelines, led by Dr. Weeliat Chong, chair of the GDG.
The report identified four key recommendations as priorities for implementation:
• Consider using multiple methods (such as health record review, patient surveys and direct observation of medicines administration) to identify medicine-related patient safety incidents
• Organizations should ensure that medicines reconciliation (i.e., making sure medicines prescribed on admission correspond to those that the patient was taking before admission) is carried out by a trained and competent health professional with effective communication skills, technical knowledge of processes for managing medicines, and therapeutic knowledge of medicines use.
• Health and social care practitioners should share relevant information about the [patients] and their medicines via medicines-related communication systems when a person transfers from one care setting to another.
• Consider sending the patient’s medicines discharge information to [his or her] nominated community pharmacy, when possible and in agreement with the patient.
Click here for the full report.
