Cost Savings Associated With Pharmacy Student Interventions During APPEs

Objective. To quantify the impact of pharmacy students’ clinical interventions in terms of number and cost savings throughout advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) using a Web-based documentation program.Methods. Five hundred eighty doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students completing ten 4-week APPEs during the final year of the curriculum were asked to document all clinical interventions they made using a Web-based documentation tool. Data were collected over 4 academic years.Results. The total number of interventions made was 59,613, the total dollars saved was $8,583,681, and the average savings per intervention was $148. The top 3 categories of interventions made by students were identifying dosing issues, conducting chart reviews, and recommending appropriate therapy. The top 3 intervention types made by students that resulted in the most dollars saved per intervention were identifying potential allergic reactions, identifying drug interactions, and resolving contraindications.Conclusions. Pharmacy students made important and cost-effective clinical interventions during their APPEs that resulted in significant savings. Documentation programs can track the number, type, and value of the interventions that pharmacy students are making.     

辽宁医学院附属第一医院门诊医技楼建设概述

文章从总体规划设计的科学性、现代化医疗服务理念、医疗流程和设备要求等方面具体阐述了辽宁医学院附属第一医院在新建门诊医技楼中对建筑设计的要求.     

Low perceived service quality in community pharmacy is associated with poor medication adherence

ObjectiveCommunity pharmacists are highly accessible healthcare professionals, whose regular contact with patients provides ongoing opportunities to improve medication safety and promote medication adherence. This study investigates whether patients who experience low service quality in community pharmacies are less adherent to their regular medications.MethodsEight Australian pharmacies were recruited, 5 self-identified as having a price promotion business strategy and 3 with a service-focused business strategy. Patients taking regular prescribed medicines who had previously attended the pharmacy completed e-surveys in-store with measures of perceived service quality (pSQ) and self-reported adherence. Multivariate regression using multilevel modelling with bootstrapping was used to explore the relationships between variables.ResultsSurveys were completed by 319 respondents. Attending pharmacies with a price promotion business strategy was predictive of lower pSQ and poor medication adherence. The between-pharmacy slope of the relationship between pSQ and adherence was 2.25 (with 95 % confidence intervals = 1.50, 2.86) and was highest in pharmacies with lowest pSQ.ConclusionThis study highlights that when patients experience low service quality, in community pharmacies they are more likely to report poor adherence to their regular prescribed medicines.Practice implicationsCommunity pharmacies need to be designed and managed to allow pharmacists to provide high levels of patient-centred care.     

Pharmacy Students’ Application of Knowledge From the Classroom to Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences

Objective. To determine whether and how pharmacy students used knowledge learned in the classroom during their introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) in community and hospital settings.Design. To reinforce course concepts and make connections between coursework and practice, students documented examples of how knowledge from first-year courses was used in IPPEs.Assessment. Data submitted were categorized by classroom-based pharmacy course, including the frequency with which each course was cited. For community practice experiences, most student examples of knowledge application related to the self-care therapeutics course, pharmacy practice laboratory course, and dose form/compounding laboratory courses. Hospital IPPE examples were most frequently based on the pharmaceutical calculations course, physiology/pathophysiology course, medicinal chemistry course, and pharmacy practice laboratory course.Conclusion. All prior classroom-based pharmacy courses were cited by students as being useful during IPPEs, although some were more frequently cited than others. This activity provided useful programmatic assessment data.