2 articles
Effective communication techniques within the pharmaceutical system enhance the pharmacist's image as a medication expert. Emphasizing these communication principles helps pharmacists create a favorable environment during counseling session with elderly patients, addressing their specific needs and expectations.
The aim of the study was to highlight the principles and general rules of communication adapted to the needs of elderly individuals as beneficiaries of specialized pharmaceutical care and to ensure the quality of pharmaceutical services provided to them in community pharmacies.
The research conducted was descriptive in nature, and the research instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of eight closed-ended questions that focused on various aspects of information exchange between pharmacists and elderly patients during medication dispensing.
A survey of 406 community pharmacists revealed that they are key sources of information in elderly patients' medication decisions. By asking questions about medications and health conditions, pharmacists engage patients and enhance interactions. Identifying and overcoming communication barriers in the pharmacist-elderly patient relationship depends on the techniques and tools used by pharmacists. Most respondents indicated that they rarely encounter communication barriers with elderly patients during counseling. Open and effective communication, along with adapting language to the patient’s level of understanding, supports accurate medication counseling and helps prevent errors. Applying effective communication principles ensures that elderly patients receive necessary information about their medication, especially in the case of minor ailments. Elderly patients frequently seek advice on issues such as muscle pain, insomnia, constipation, and cough. In these cases, pharmacists recommend and select appropriate over-the-counter medications for them. Implementing a counseling algorithm for elderly patients in community pharmacies could significantly improve communication quality and patient outcome.
Standardized communication techniques, such as an elderly-centered counseling algorithm, can help prevent medication errors and promote rational medication use in outpatient settings, especially for minor ailments.
In the pharmaceutical field, the quality management is a priority and the risk management is a valuable component of an effective quality system. It involves anticipating hazards and controlling risk through a process of risk awareness, reduction, and review. The aim of this paper was to reveal the usefulness of modern risk management strategies and to assess the impact of risk management in the provision of quality services by community pharmacies.
The causes that can lead to medication errors in community pharmacies were identified by applying the CNAM Method combined with the Delphi Technique, later the risks were categorized by the Ishikawa diagram, analyzed and evaluated by applying the expert analysis method (MAE) in risk assessment, graphically represented by the Matrix risks and ranked, highlighting pharmacy activities during which medication errors may occur.
The risk factor was calculated for 56 potential risks that can cause medication errors, of which 8 for the activity of ordering medicines, 8 potential risks for the activity of receiving products, 6 risks for the activity of storing products, 17 risks for the preparation of drugs and 17 risks for drug dispensing activity. Applying the MAE method in risk assessment, risk occurrence probability and outcome impact values were obtained for each risk. The potential risks of error were graphically represented using the Risk Matrix. Thus, the following activities with a major level of risk were highlighted, for which urgent measures to minimize the impact are required: illegible writing in prescriptions (15.5), fatigue of pharmaceutical staff (15.48), overwork/multitasking (14.99), prescriptions containing errors (14.26), insufficient staff knowledge (13.81), ordering inappropriate quantities of products in pharmacies (13.59), incomplete prescriptions (12.86) and similar packaging of medicines (12.63).
The results of this paper provide the basis for further research in order to develop a Risk Management Plan in community pharmacy. The causes that can lead to errors in the pharmacy have been identified, by highlighting pharmaceutical activities, during which risks of errors may occur. The work has practical use, and the research results can be applied by pharmacies, contributing to the improvement of their performance.