Risicomanagement in de zorgpraktijk van de openbare apotheker

Abstract

Buurma H, De Smet PAGM, Egberts ACG. Clinical risk management in community pharmacy. Huisarts Wet 2007;50(12):623-7. Scientific studies regularly lead to debate about patient safety, in particular medication errors. Community pharmacy is considered an important player in the risk management of pharmacotherapy. Limited research is available concerning the extent, nature and effectiveness of this position of community pharmacy. The thesis “Clinical risk management in community pharmacy” attempts to partially bridge this gap in knowledge. In this article, we describe several studies from this thesis. We discuss the number and nature of prescription modifications in pharmacies, as well as the value of these modifications according to a robust panel of experts. More specifically, we describe the problem of drug-drug interactions. We consider the number and nature of alerts and how pharmacies manage these alerts. The quality of contraindication monitoring by pharmacists depends on the documentation of diseases in electronic patient records. One of the studies focuses on the prevalence and reliability of disease documentation in patient records in pharmacies. Studies from this thesis inform us about the position of community pharmacy in preventing and managing a wide range of pharmacotherapy-related problems. Moreover, they furnish us with an improved understanding of the quality of pharmaceutical care. Yet, further research is warranted, for example about the influence of the relationship between GPs and pharmacists on risk management in pharmacies.