Feasibility and acceptability of a virtual clinical pharmacy service for elective orthopaedic inpatients in an Australian metropolitan hospital

IF 1 Q4 PHARMACOLOGY & PHARMACY

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Pub Date : 2023-03-08 DOI:10.1002/jppr.1853

Brett Chambers BSc, MPharm, Julaine Allan BSocWk, MSocSc (Crim), PhD (SocWk), Emma Webster BSc (Hons), DrPH, Anna Packer BPharm, GradCertPharmPrac, Shannon Nott MBBS, MHM, MPH

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Abstract

Background

Virtual healthcare services are usually provided from urban centres to outpatient clinics or underserved rural areas. This study utilises virtual pharmacy as an innovative model to provide services to a metropolitan hospital from a rural area.

Aim

This study assesses the feasibility, and patient and staff acceptability of a Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service (VCPS) in a tertiary metropolitan hospital ward with limited on-site clinical pharmacy services.

Method

Pharmacists from a rural health district provided telepharmacy services for nine weeks. Data on service provision and detection of medication-related issues were captured in the electronic health record. Service acceptability was assessed through a staff focus group and patient acceptability by a patient-reported experience measures (PREM) survey. Ethical approval was granted by the Greater Western Human Research Ethics Committee (Reference no: 2021/ETH00097).

Results

The VCPS demonstrated high utilisation, with 535 clinical and medication reviews provided for 225 patients. Virtual medication reviews identified 151 medication-related issues or recommendations. PREM surveys (n = 22) were supportive of the VCPS model. Staff valued the service and reported ease of access to specialist medication advice and confidence that patient medications were correct. Staff raised patient confidentiality in open wards and lack of experience using virtual healthcare as barriers to the implementation.

Conclusion

Feasibility was demonstrated by high service utilisation, detection of medication-related issues, and measures of acceptability from patients and staff. The VCPS offers a solution to enhance sustainability and service agility by delivery of clinical services when face-to-face is not practicable or available. Further research is required to demonstrate efficacy and to confirm patient acceptability.

Abstract Image

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一个虚拟临床药房服务的可行性和可接受性为选择性骨科住院患者在澳大利亚大都会医院

虚拟医疗服务通常从城市中心提供给门诊诊所或服务不足的农村地区。这项研究利用虚拟药房作为一种创新模式，为农村地区的大都市医院提供服务。

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来源期刊

Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research Health Professions-Pharmacy

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

9.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The purpose of this document is to describe the structure, function and operations of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research, the official journal of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA). It is owned, published by and copyrighted to SHPA. However, the Journal is to some extent unique within SHPA in that it ‘…has complete editorial freedom in terms of content and is not under the direction of the Society or its Council in such matters…’. This statement, originally based on a Role Statement for the Editor-in-Chief 1993, is also based on the definition of ‘editorial independence’ from the World Association of Medical Editors and adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.