PILOT
acute response to chronic issue
aS thE EValUatIon of thE rEcEnt acUtE carE at hoME SErVIcE PIlot InVolVIng PharMacY IS dIStrIBUtEd to coMMUnItY PharMacY northErn IrEland (cPnI), thE dEPartMEnt of hEalth (doh) and thE PIlot PharMacIES InVolVEd, PIf aSSESSES ItS IMPact…
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hospital admission can be particularly disruptive and traumatic for an older person,
who may be less mobile, for those who have dementia, or are carers. Introduced in 2015, the acute care at home (acah) was an innovative new service, which provided older people with expert medical and social care in their own home.
the service involved a range of healthcare professionals working together to help older people manage conditions such as chest infections, urinary tract infections, cellulitis and dehydration without the need for attending the emergency department or being admitted to hospital.
the (acah) service helped to maintain the independence of the individual, and reduced the potential for the onset of confusion or hospital-acquired infections. It
8 - PharMacY In focUS
also proved that it could, in some cases, promote a quicker recovery.
last year, a ten-month pilot was launched which included, for the first time, a community pharmacy element. the patients were assessed and managed by a multidisciplinary team in their own home, with the prescriptions filled by a community pharmacist involved in the pilot. a member of the team would write a prescription on an order form that was specially created for the pilot (in order to bridge the gap between secondary and primary care) and would liaise with the patient’s gP so that everybody was aware of any changes to the patient’s medication.
the original plan was that the form would be presented by the team member so that the community pharmacist could sort any problems at the time. throughout the course of
the pilot, changes were made to enable the patient’s carer or a family member to present the prescription to a participating community pharmacy.
Eight pharmacies took part in the pilot, each receiving standard monthly fees for. the pharmacies were asked to maintain an agreed list of drugs that aren’t normally stocked in community pharmacy to ensure faster and increased accessibility if these items were required by patients.
‘the pharmacies were chosen through an expression of interest system,’ said gillian Plant, Pharmacy coordinator at the health & Social care Board, ‘and along a geographical split, with two pharmacies chosen from each Belfast IcP. deciding factors included issues such as opening hours and easy access and parking for trust staff.
‘although the pilot was originally intended to run for only six months, it was extended to allow for further data collection. In addition, to facilitate the use of the stock held by each of the pharmacies, the acah team could continue to use the community pharmacy service until the end of december 2017.
‘the objective of the pilot was to get medicines to these patients more promptly and, indeed, the evaluation showed that there the community pharmacy service was able to provide medicines for acute care at home patients in a more timely manner than through the trust pharmacy system.
‘‘While the evaluation showed how helpful community pharmacy was in contributing to the care of these patients, however, it was evident that the service model tested didn’t fully >
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