Pharmacists have a valuable role to play in the detection and resolution of drug-related problems (DRPs) as part of a general-practice team, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.
The journal says team-based care has been used internationally to improve the delivery of best-practice primary healthcare.
Supporting this idea, the WentWest General Practice Pharmacist Project in western Sydney, involving the integration of pharmacists within general-practice teams, was commissioned to improve medication management of general-practice patients.
The main outcome measured in the project was DRPs, with six pharmacists recording the results from 493 patient consultations. The pharmacists identified 1,124 DRPs and made 984 recommendations, of which 685 (70 per cent) were recorded as accepted by the GP.
A major focus of the project was the performance of medication review to allow the detection and resolution of DRPs.
The objectives of the six-month study were to identify and classify the DRPs detected as a result of pharmacist activities within a general-practice primary-care setting. The study also compared the number of pharmacist recommendations and GP acceptance rates as a result of pharmacist patient consultations across multiple general-practice sites.
The study included 15 general-practice primary-care sites in western Sydney between October 2016 and March 2017.
