Miriam E Craske, Wendy Hardeman, Nicholas Steel, Michael J Twigg
{"title":"Components of pharmacist-led medication reviews and their relationship to outcomes: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.","authors":"Miriam E Craske, Wendy Hardeman, Nicholas Steel, Michael J Twigg","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017283","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017283","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Pharmacist-led medication reviews are an established intervention to support patients prescribed multiple medicines or with complex medication regimes. For this systematic review, a medication review was defined as 'a consultation between a pharmacist and a patient to review the patient's total medicines use with a view to improve patient health outcomes and minimise medicines-related problems'. It is not known how varying approaches to medication reviews lead to different outcomes.</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>To explore the common themes associated with positive outcomes from pharmacist-led medication reviews.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Randomised controlled trials of pharmacist-led medication reviews in adults aged 18 years and over were included. The search terms used in MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science databases were \"medication review\", \"pharmacist\", \"randomised controlled trial\" and their synonyms, time filter 2015 to September 2023. Studies published before 2015 were identified from a previous systematic review. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias 2 tool. Descriptions of medication reviews' components, implementation and outcomes were narratively synthesised to draw out common themes. Results are presented in tables.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Sixty-eight papers describing 50 studies met the inclusion criteria. Common themes that emerged from synthesis include collaborative working which may help reduce medicines-related problems and the number of medicines prescribed; patient involvement in goal setting and action planning which may improve patients' ability to take medicines as prescribed and help them achieve their treatment goals; additional support and follow-up, which may lead to improved blood pressure, diabetes control, quality of life and a reduction of medicines-related problems.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This systematic review identified common themes and components, for example, goal setting, action planning, additional support and follow-up, that may influence outcomes of pharmacist-led medication reviews. Researchers, health professionals and commissioners could use these for a comprehensive evaluation of medication review implementation.</p><p><strong>Prospero registration number: </strong>CRD42020173907.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"808-822"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141625934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nasir Wabe, Rachel Urwin, Karla Seaman, Johanna I Westbrook
{"title":"Longitudinal cohort study of discrepancies between prescribed and administered polypharmacy rates: implications for National Aged Care Quality Indicator Programs.","authors":"Nasir Wabe, Rachel Urwin, Karla Seaman, Johanna I Westbrook","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-017042","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-017042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Polypharmacy is frequently used as a quality indicator for older adults in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) and is measured using a range of definitions. The impact of data source choice on polypharmacy rates and the implications for monitoring and benchmarking remain unclear. We aimed to determine polypharmacy rates (≥9 concurrent medicines) by using prescribed and administered data under various scenarios, leveraging electronic data from 30 RACFs.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A longitudinal cohort study of 5662 residents in New South Wales, Australia. Both prescribed and administered polypharmacy rates were calculated biweekly from January 2019 to September 2022, providing 156 assessment times. 12 different polypharmacy rates were computed separately using prescribing and administration data and incorporating different combinations of items: <i>medicines and non-medicinal products</i>, <i>any medicines</i> and <i>regular medicines</i> across four scenarios: no, 1-week, 2-week and 4-week look-back periods. Generalised estimating equation models were employed to identify predictors of discrepancies between prescribed and administered polypharmacy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Polypharmacy rates among residents ranged from 33.9% using data on administered <i>regular medicines</i> with no look-back period to 63.5% using prescribed <i>medicines and non-medicinal products</i> with a 4-week look-back period. At each assessment time, the differences between prescribed and administered polypharmacy rates were consistently more than 10.0%, 4.5%, 3.5% and 3.0%, respectively, with no, 1-week, 2-week and 4-week look-back periods. Diabetic residents faced over two times the likelihood of polypharmacy discrepancies compared with counterparts, while dementia residents consistently showed reduced likelihood across all analyses.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>We found notable discrepancies between polypharmacy rates for prescribed and administered medicines. We recommend a review of the guidance for calculating and interpreting polypharmacy for national quality indicator programmes to ensure consistent measurement and meaningful reporting.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"780-789"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11671870/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141625935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integration and connection: the key to effectiveness of large-scale pharmacist-led medication reviews?","authors":"Andrew Husband, Anna Robinson-Barella","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017740","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017740","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"765-768"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142104180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Meagan M Ladell, Sarah Yale, Brett J Bordini, Matthew C Scanlon, Nancy Jacobson, Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky
{"title":"Why a sociotechnical framework is necessary to address diagnostic error.","authors":"Meagan M Ladell, Sarah Yale, Brett J Bordini, Matthew C Scanlon, Nancy Jacobson, Elizabeth Lerner Papautsky","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017231","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017231","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"823-828"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11671979/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141888426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Role of communicating diagnostic uncertainty in the safety-netting process: insights from a vignette study.","authors":"Caitríona Cox, Thea Hatfield, Zoë Fritz","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-017037","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-017037","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Safety-netting is intended to protect against harm from uncertainty in diagnosis/disease trajectory. Despite recommendations to communicate diagnostic uncertainty when safety-netting, this is not always done.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>To explore how and why doctors safety-netted in response to several clinical scenarios, within the broader context of exploring how doctors communicate diagnostic uncertainty.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Doctors working in internal medical specialties (n=36) from five hospitals were given vignettes in a randomised order (all depicting different clinical scenarios involving diagnostic uncertainty). After reading each, they told an interviewer what they would tell a 'typical patient' in this situation. A follow-up semistructured interview explored reasons for their communication. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded. We examined <i>how</i> participants safety-netted using a content analysis approach, and <i>why</i> they safety-netting with thematic analysis of the semistructured follow-up interviews using thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We observed n=78 instances of safety-netting (across 108 vignette encounters). We found significant variation in how participants safety-netted. Safety-netting was common (although not universal), but clinicians differed in the detail provided about symptoms to be alert for, and the action advised. Although many viewed safety-netting as an important tool for managing diagnostic uncertainty, diagnostic uncertainty was infrequently explicitly discussed; most advised patients to return if symptoms worsened or new 'red flag' symptoms developed, but they rarely linked this directly to the possibility of diagnostic error. Some participants expressed concerns that communicating diagnostic uncertainty when safety-netting may cause anxiety for patients or could drive inappropriate reattendance/over-investigation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Participants safety-netted variously, even when presented with identical clinical information. Although safety-netting was seen as important in avoiding diagnostic error, concerns about worrying patients may have limited discussion about diagnostic uncertainty. Research is needed to determine whether communicating diagnostic uncertainty makes safety-netting more effective at preventing harm associated with diagnostic error, and whether it causes significant patient anxiety.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"769-779"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11671892/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142139172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Safety netting: time to stop relying on verbal interventions to manage diagnostic uncertainty?","authors":"Georgia B Black","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017344","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017344","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"759-761"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142494912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond polypharmacy to the brave new world of minimum datasets and artificial intelligence: thumbing a nose to Henry.","authors":"Adam Todd, Barbara Hanratty","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017577","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017577","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"762-764"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142494910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew L Mizel, Ann Haas, John L Adams, Steven C Martino, Amelia M Haviland, Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, Jacob W Dembosky, Malcolm Williams, Gary Abel, Jessica Maksut, Jennifer Gildner, Marc N Elliott
{"title":"County-level racial bias is associated with worse care for white and especially black older US adults: a cross-sectional observational study.","authors":"Matthew L Mizel, Ann Haas, John L Adams, Steven C Martino, Amelia M Haviland, Bonnie Ghosh-Dastidar, Jacob W Dembosky, Malcolm Williams, Gary Abel, Jessica Maksut, Jennifer Gildner, Marc N Elliott","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017430","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017430","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To assess the association of county-level bias about black and white people with patient experience, influenza immunisation, and quality of clinical care for black and white older US adults (age 65+ years).</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Linear multivariable regression measured the cross-sectional association of county-level estimates of implicit and explicit bias about black and white people with patient experiences, influenza immunisation, and clinical quality-of-care for black and white older US adults.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>We used data from 1.9 million white adults who completed implicit and explicit bias measures during 2003-2018, patient experience and influenza immunisation data from respondents to the 2009-2017 Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (MCAHPS) Surveys, and clinical quality-of-care data from patients whose records were included in 2009-2017 Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) submissions (n=0.8-2.9 million per measure).</p><p><strong>Main outcome measures: </strong>Three patient experience measures and patient-reported influenza immunisation from the MCAHPS Survey; five HEDIS measures.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In county-level models, higher pro-white implicit bias was associated with lower immunisation rates and worse scores for some patient experience measures for black and white adults as well as larger-magnitude black-white disparities. Higher pro-white implicit bias was associated with worse scores for some HEDIS measures for black and white adults but not with black-white disparities in clinical quality of care. Most significant associations were small in magnitude (effect sizes of 0.2-0.3 or less).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>To the extent that county-level pro-white implicit bias is indicative of bias among healthcare providers, there may be a need for interventions designed to prevent such bias from adversely affecting the experiences and preventive care of black patients and the clinical quality of care for all patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142387871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nurunnahar Akter, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Ruth Swann, Greg Rubin, Sean McPhail, Meena Rafiq, Abodunrin Aminu, Nadine Zakkak, Gary Abel
{"title":"Variation in the use of primary care-led investigations prior to a cancer diagnosis: analysis of the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit.","authors":"Nurunnahar Akter, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Ruth Swann, Greg Rubin, Sean McPhail, Meena Rafiq, Abodunrin Aminu, Nadine Zakkak, Gary Abel","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017264","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Use of investigations can help support the diagnostic process of patients with cancer in primary care, but the size of variation between patient group and between practices is unclear.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analysed data on 53 252 patients from 1868 general practices included in the National Cancer Diagnosis Audit 2018 using a sequence of logistic regression models to quantify and explain practice-level variation in investigation use, accounting for patient-level case-mix and practice characteristics. Four types of investigations were considered: any investigation, blood tests, imaging and endoscopy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Large variation in practice use was observed (OR for 97.5th to 2.5th centile being 4.02, 4.33 and 3.12, respectively for any investigation, blood test and imaging). After accounting for patient case-mix, the spread of practice variation increased further to 5.61, 6.30 and 3.60 denoting that patients with characteristics associated with higher use (ie, certain cancer sites) are over-represented among practices with lower than the national average use of such investigation. Practice characteristics explained very little of observed variation, except for rurality (rural practices having lower use of any investigation) and concentration of older age patients (practices with older patients being more likely to use all types of investigations).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>There is very large variation between practices in use of investigation in patients with cancer as part of the diagnostic process. It is conceivable that the diagnostic process can be improved if investigation use was to be increased in lower use practices, although it is also possible that there is overtesting in practices with very high use of investigations, and in fact both undertesting and overtesting may co-exist.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142494913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bethan Page, Dulcie Irving, Rene Amalberti, Charles Vincent
{"title":"Health services under pressure: a scoping review and development of a taxonomy of adaptive strategies.","authors":"Bethan Page, Dulcie Irving, Rene Amalberti, Charles Vincent","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016686","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016686","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The objective of this review was to develop a taxonomy of pressures experienced by health services and an accompanying taxonomy of strategies for adapting in response to these pressures. The taxonomies were developed from a review of observational studies directly assessing care delivered in a variety of clinical environments.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>In the first phase, a scoping review of the relevant literature was conducted. In the second phase, pressures and strategies were systematically coded from the included papers, and categorised.</p><p><strong>Data sources: </strong>Electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycInfo and Scopus) and reference lists from recent reviews of the resilient healthcare literature.</p><p><strong>Eligibility criteria: </strong>Studies were included from the resilient healthcare literature, which used descriptive methodologies to directly assess a clinical environment. The studies were required to contain strategies for managing under pressure.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>5402 potential articles were identified with 17 papers meeting the inclusion criteria. The principal source of pressure described in the studies was the demand for care exceeding capacity (ie, the resources available), which in turn led to difficult working conditions and problems with system functioning. Strategies for responding to pressures were categorised into anticipatory and on-the-day adaptations. Anticipatory strategies included strategies for increasing resources, controlling demand and plans for managing the workload (efficiency strategies, forward planning, monitoring and co-ordination strategies and staff support initiatives). On-the-day adaptations were categorised into: flexing the use of existing resources, prioritising demand and adapting ways of working (leadership, teamwork and communication strategies).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The review has culminated in an empirically based taxonomy of pressures and an accompanying taxonomy of strategies for adapting in response to these pressures. The taxonomies could help clinicians and managers to optimise how they respond to pressures and may be used as the basis for training programmes and future research evaluating the impact of different strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"738-747"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11503202/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138481959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}