Experiences of a nationwide web-based system: reporting dispensing errors in Swedish pharmacies.

OBJECTIVES: To design and evaluate a national web-based dispensing error reporting system for all Swedish pharmacies, replacing the currently used paper-based system. METHODS: A working group designed the new system. The number of reports before (1999-2003) and after (2004-2005) introduction was studied in a descriptive analysis. The completeness of reports was evaluated through the study of 100 randomly selected reports from the third quarter of 2003 and 2004 from each system. Evaluation was done by chi-square analysis; P>0.05. Perceptions on introduction were collected in semi-structured interviews (working group and one assistant) and subjected to descriptive analysis. KEY FINDINGS: Reported error rate per 100,000 dispensed items was 12.9 pre- and 21.4 post implementation. Completeness-analysis revealed that information was more comprehensively reported in the new system. A significant difference existed in the extent to which incidents were described as well as details provided of the medicine and the patient. According to the interviewees, users initially found the web-based system difficult to handle. It took more than 6 months to change this perception. CONCLUSIONS: Introducing a web-based system for reporting dispensing errors had an impact on quantity of reports and completeness. Time and patience was needed to implement the changes.

Pharmacy users' expectations of pharmacy encounters: a Q-methodological study.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacy practice is evolving according to general health-care trends such as increased patient involvement and public health initiatives. In addition, pharmacists strive to find new professional roles. Clients' expectations of service encounters at pharmacies is an under-explored topic but crucial to understanding how pharmacy practice can evolve efficiently. OBJECTIVE: To identify and describe different normative expectations of the pharmacy encounter among pharmacy clients. METHODS: Q methodology, an approach to systematically explore subjectivity that retains complete patterns of responses and organizes these into factors of operant subjectivity. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-five regular prescription medication users recruited at Swedish community pharmacies and by snowballing. RESULTS: Seven factors of operant subjectivity were identified, and organized into two groups. Factors that emphasized the physical drug product as the central object of the pharmacy encounter were labelled as independent drug shopping; logistics of drug distribution; and supply of individual's own drugs. Factors that emphasized personal support as desirable were labelled competence as individual support; individualist professional relations, just take care of me; and practical health-care and lifestyle support. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The systematic Q-methodological approach yielded valuable insights into how pharmacy clients construct their expectations for service encounters. They hold differentiating normative expectations for pharmacy services. Understanding these varying viewpoints may be important for developing and prioritizing among efficient pharmacy services. Clients' expectations do not correspond with trends that guide current pharmacy practice development. This might be a challenge for promoting or implementing services based on such trends.

Reducing dispensing errors in Swedish pharmacies: the impact of a barrier in the computer system.

BACKGROUND: Since 2004, a web-based reporting system enables monitoring of dispensing errors in all Swedish pharmacies. The adoption of this system was followed by an overall increase in reports, mainly explained by the dispensing of medicines of improper strength. In 2006 an intervention was implemented, aimed at reducing these errors. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the intervention on the number of errors. METHODS: Monthly data on the reported number of dispensing errors from July 2004 until December 2007 were used. These were analysed in total and subdivided by type and cause of error. A time-series design was applied, and linear segmented regression analysis used to analyse whether changes in slope or level occurred; shifts in intercept or slope where p<0.01 were considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: The intervention coincided with a distinct decrease in error reports and a statistically significant change in slope that switched from a slight increase, 0.09, to a decrease, -0.26 (p = 0.0035). Medicines dispensed with wrong strength also displayed a significant change in slope, from 0.08 to -0.27 (p<0.0001), as well as dispensing errors caused by registration failure, that is, failure of the registration of a prescription in pharmacy computers, which changed from 0.05 to -0.29 (p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: The intervention was associated with a decrease in the number of reports on drugs dispensed with the wrong strength, but also had a decreasing effect on errors caused by registration failure and on the dispensing errors in total as well.

Counselling behaviour and content in a pharmaceutical care service in Swedish community pharmacies.

OBJECTIVE: To characterise the counselling behaviour of practitioners providing a pharmaceutical care (PC) service in community pharmacy, and to describe the content of the consultations. SETTING: Community pharmacies in Sweden. METHODS: Non-participant observations, including audio recording, of five practitioners in five different pharmacies counselling 16 patients, were analysed qualitatively using an iterative, stepwise, interpretivist approach. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptions of counselling behaviour and content of consultations. RESULTS: The counselling behaviour was characterised by attempts to understand the patients' narratives by listening and asking questions and a willingness to help. The computer often had an important role in consultations, being used for documentation and as a supportive tool for identification of drug-drug interactions. The practitioners often took command in the initial phase of the consultation, and omitted to determine the patients' most urgent drug-related needs. However, counselling behaviour that identified and focused on the patient's needs, giving the computer little attention during the consultation was also observed. Practitioners provided vague descriptions of the purpose and outline of the service. Consultations included a wide variety of issues, which potentially could help patients' achieve optimal outcomes of medical treatment. CONCLUSION: The practitioners provided important advice and different forms of support to patients. Focus on the computer screen limited their abilities to practise patient centred care.

Assessing safety culture in pharmacies: the psychometric validation of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) in a national sample of community pharmacies in Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Safety culture assessment is increasingly recognized as an important component in healthcare quality improvement, also in pharmacies. One of the most commonly used and rigorously validated tools to measure safety culture is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire; SAQ. This study presents the validation of the SAQ for use in Swedish pharmacies. The psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are presented METHODS: The original English language version of the SAQ was translated and adapted to the Swedish context and distributed by e-mail. The survey was carried out on a national basis, covering all 870 Swedish community pharmacies. In total, 7,244 questionnaires were distributed. Scale psychometrics were analysed using Cronbach alphas and intercorrelations among the scales. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted. RESULTS: SAQ data from 828 community pharmacies in Sweden, including 4,090 (60.22%) pharmacy personnel out of 6,683 eligible respondents, were received. There were 252 (28.97%) pharmacies that met the inclusion criteria of having at least 5 respondents and a minimum response rate of 60% within that pharmacy.The coefficient alpha value for each of the SAQ scales ranged from .72 to .89. The internal consistency results, in conjunction with the confirmatory factor analysis results, demonstrate that the Swedish translation of the SAQ has acceptable to good psychometric properties. Perceptions of the pharmacy (Teamwork Climate, Job Satisfaction, Perceptions of Management, Safety Climate, and Working Conditions) were moderately to highly correlated with one another whereas attitudes about stress (Stress Recognition) had only low correlations with other factors. Perceptions of management showed the most variability across pharmacies (SD = 26.66), whereas Stress Recognition showed the least (SD = 18.58). There was substantial variability ranging from 0% to 100% in the percent of positive scores for each of the factors across the 252 pharmacies. CONCLUSIONS: The Swedish translation of the SAQ demonstrates acceptable construct validity, for capturing the frontline perspective of safety culture of community pharmacy staff. The psychometric results reported here met or exceeded standard guidelines, which is consistent with previous studies using the SAQ in other healthcare settings and other languages.

A comprehensive pharmacist intervention to reduce morbidity in patients 80 years or older: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Patients 80 years or older are underrepresented in scientific studies. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of interventions performed by ward-based pharmacists in reducing morbidity and use of hospital care among older patients. METHODS: A randomized controlled study of patients 80 years or older was conducted at the University Hospital of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden. Four hundred patients were recruited consecutively between October 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, and were randomized to control (n = 201) and intervention (n = 199) groups. The interventions were performed by ward-based pharmacists. The control group received standard care without direct involvement of pharmacists at the ward level. The primary outcome measure was the frequency of hospital visits (emergency department and readmissions [total and drug-related]) during the 12-month follow-up period. RESULTS: Three hundred sixty-eight patients (182 in the intervention group and 186 in the control group) were analyzed. For the intervention group, there was a 16% reduction in all visits to the hospital (quotient, 1.88 vs 2.24; estimate, 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-0.99) and a 47% reduction in visits to the emergency department (quotient, 0.35 vs 0.66; estimate, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.37-0.75). Drug-related readmissions were reduced by 80% (quotient, 0.06 vs 0.32; estimate, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.10-0.41). After inclusion of the intervention costs, the total cost per patient in the intervention group was $230 lower than that in the control group. CONCLUSION: If implemented on a population basis, the addition of pharmacists to health care teams would lead to major reductions in morbidity and health care costs.

Living with skin diseases and topical treatment: patients' and providers' perspectives and priorities.

OBJECTIVES: Relationship-centred care stresses the importance of taking both patients' and health-care providers' values, expectations and preferences into account to improve health outcomes. The aim of this qualitative study was to identify patients' and providers' views and experiences of skin disease and topical treatment. METHODS: Two types of focus group were used: (i) patients with chronic dermatological diseases and (ii) doctors, nurses and pharmacists working in dermatological care. RESULTS: Three major categories emerged: (i) problems related to the disease, (ii) problems related to the treatment and (iii) strategies for improving everyday life for patients. CONCLUSION: Patients and providers made several suggestions for improving everyday life. Future research needs to focus on how to achieve preference-matched shared decision-making, or concordance, between patients and health-care providers, taking different perspectives into account and how to evaluate the effect of the final, clinical, economical and humanistic outcomes of care and treatment. More seamless care and an increasingly shared understanding between patients and providers of their values, expectations and preferences for care and treatment may contribute to better health and better daily lives for patients.

Implementation of a pharmaceutical care service: prescriptionists', pharmacists' and doctors' views.

OBJECTIVE: To identify prescriptionists', pharmacists' and doctors' perceptions and experiences of a pharmaceutical care service supported by patient medication records (PMRs). METHOD: Qualitative study employing focus group interviews with 16 prescriptionists and five pharmacists, and semi structured telephone interviews with 11 doctors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prescriptionists', pharmacists' and doctors' views, experiences and perceptions of a pharmaceutical care service on Swedish community pharmacies. RESULTS: The provision of pharmaceutical care aided by PMRs had a positive influence on the prescriptionists' and pharmacists' daily work, and on their view of their professional role. They assumed greater professional responsibility, and described greater use of their pharmaceutical knowledge, greater confidence in practice and an increased awareness of their counselling role. They appreciated that the pharmaceutical care service provided an over-all picture of patients' drug use, allowed for follow-up on counselling and made the prescriptionists' and pharmacists' competence tangible for patients. Perceived problems with the pharmaceutical care service included being time-consuming, record keeping being difficult, difficulty in getting understanding/support from colleagues and managers, and difficulty involving doctors. The majority of the doctors reported that they had not taken an active interest in the project, and their opinions of the pharmaceutical care service varied. CONCLUSION: When prescriptionists and pharmacists apply the pharmaceutical care concept and work with PMRs, the patients are more likely to meet confident professionals that are more aware of the individual behind the drug therapy. This will hopefully contribute to informed, motivated medicine users that feel secure in their interactions with their pharmacy and receive, not only drugs, but treatment support. For such a service to be effective, however, it is vital to ensure that the doctors are fully co-operative.

Patients'and doctors' views of using the schedule for individual quality of life in clinical practice.

This study explored patients' and oncologists' perceptions of using a computer-administered, individualized quality-of-life (QOL) instrument to support an oncologic consultation. Twenty patients with gastrointestinal cancer (50% female; mean age 60 years) at two hospitals in Sweden completed the Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life-Direct Weight (SEIQoL-DW) and the Disease-Related (DR) SEIQoL-DW and brought the results to the consultation. Afterwards, interviews were conducted with all patients and six of eight doctors. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using an interpretivist approach. Most patients and doctors believed that the instrument would facilitate detection of patients' areas of concern and would support monitoring of patients' QOL. This tool may empower the patient, give the doctor a broader picture of the patient, and influence clinical decision-making. The SEIQoL-DW may be a systematic method of stimulating patient-centered care. It apparently encourages patients to reflect upon their own situation and allows them to be seen as whole persons. However, further quantitative evaluation of the intervention's outcomes is required.

Perceptions of potential donors in the Swedish public towards information and consent procedures in relation to use of human tissue samples in biobanks: a population-based study.

AIMS: To assess the Swedish public's preferences for information and consent procedures when being asked for permission to use previously collected tissue samples for new research studies. METHODS: Cross-sectional study employing postal questionnaires to a random sample of the Swedish general public (n = 6,000) in October 2002-February 2003. The response rate was 49% (n = 2,928). This paper includes only respondents who reportedly would approve of samples being taken and stored (n = 2,122). RESULTS: When potential tissue sample donors in the general public have to strike a balance between the values at stake, i.e. the autonomy of the donor versus the research value, most (72%) prefer general consent, i.e. where consent is asked for at the outset only. They want the research ethics committee (REC) alone to decide on the use of stored samples, and they would allow storage as long as the sample is useful for research. The minority of respondents who were in favour of specific consent were more likely to be young, well educated, have negative experiences of healthcare and low trust in healthcare authorities. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the Swedish general public prefer general consent, and are thus willing to delegate some decisions to the RECs. However, preferences for information and consent procedures depend on the context, e.g. the risks for the donor and the purpose of the research. If feasible, procedures should be differentiated according to the preferences of individual donors, thus protecting the interests of both the minority and the majority.

Genetic research and donation of tissue samples to biobanks. What do potential sample donors in the Swedish general public think?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to identify perceptions of the general public regarding research involving human tissues; to assess the public's willingness to donate samples to biobanks; and to identify factors associated with the willingness to donate samples. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey. Postal questionnaires to a random sample of the general public in Sweden, 18-80 years of age (n = 6000) in October 2002 (response rate 49.4%; n = 2928). RESULTS: A majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards genetic research. Their trust in authorities' capability to evaluate the risks and benefits of genetic research varied. Individual university/hospital-based researchers received the greatest trust, while the county councils (health care providers), and the Swedish Parliament received the lowest trust. Most respondents (86.0%) would donate a linked blood sample for research purposes. Another 3.0% would provide an anonymous sample. In total, 78% of the respondents would agree to both donation and storage. The most common motive was benefit of future patients. The majority was indifferent to the funding source for the research and would delegate this judgment to the research ethics committee. After adjusting for covariates, those more likely to donate a sample were middle-aged, had children, had personal experience of genetic disease, were blood donors, had a positive attitude toward genetic research, and had trust in experts/institutions. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the general public is willing to donate a sample to a biobank. The willingness is mainly driven by altruism, and depends on the public being well-informed and having trust in experts and institutions.

A qualitative study of health-care personnel's experience of a satellite pharmacy at a HIV clinic.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to investigate how health-care personnel at a HIV clinic perceived conventional pharmacies in Sweden and whether the decentralization of pharmaceutical services to the HIV clinic had led to an improved collaboration between other health-care professionals and pharmacists. METHODS: Doctors and nurses who had regular contacts with HIV patients and the satellite pharmacy were interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured, using open questions and was analysed according to the phenomenographic approach. RESULTS: The respondents perceived the existing co-work between conventional pharmacies and other health care professionals as limited. The availability of the satellite pharmacy enabled the health care professionals to understand the pharmacys' way of working, and to increase trust in the pharmacy staff. Collaboration was hence developed between the professions, leading to a consistent way of informing the patients about their HIV drugs, thereby avoiding contradictory information. The pharmacist also became involved in adherence promoting activities at the clinic. The perceived benefits for the patients were considered to be convenience and preservation of privacy as well as a better basis for safe and appropriate drug utilisation. CONCLUSION: Conventional pharmacies were shown to have several disadvantages in serving the HIV infected population. The health care professionals found the novel approach of dispensing HIV drugs at the clinic valuable. The approach led to increased communication and trust between the health care professions, and enhanced teamwork in medication management.