I heard from a contractor today who is really concerned about his patients who are discharged from hospital and who are also on a monitored dose system (MDS)...
He explained that about 30% of such patients at his pharmacy are given medication in bottles on discharge and then ring him up when they have all gone saying "where's my tray for this week?" What follows is a mad scramble of phone calls, faxes etc to ensure that medication is supplied to the patient - it's really not ideal and could be easily preventable if the hospital let the pharmacy know that the patient had left hospital with a small supply of medication...
It doesn't always happen like this, of course.
Often I get a phone call or a fax from a really helpful hospital pharmacist and everything is seamlessly done - indeed, on occasion - the MDS is supplied at almost the same time as the patient arrives home and there is no need for any discharge medication via the hospital.
I wonder whether the answer lies with the discharge protocol itself...If the patient is on a MDS device and they are being discharged then, if either the patient, or the member of hospital staff, discharging the patient made contact with the pharmacy on every occasion - well in advance to allow access to the prescription, then appropriate arrangements could/might be made - avoiding any risk of the patient being without medication?
This would also enable the pharmacy to carry out the "hospital discharge MUR"
He explained that about 30% of such patients at his pharmacy are given medication in bottles on discharge and then ring him up when they have all gone saying "where's my tray for this week?" What follows is a mad scramble of phone calls, faxes etc to ensure that medication is supplied to the patient - it's really not ideal and could be easily preventable if the hospital let the pharmacy know that the patient had left hospital with a small supply of medication...
It doesn't always happen like this, of course.
Often I get a phone call or a fax from a really helpful hospital pharmacist and everything is seamlessly done - indeed, on occasion - the MDS is supplied at almost the same time as the patient arrives home and there is no need for any discharge medication via the hospital.
I wonder whether the answer lies with the discharge protocol itself...If the patient is on a MDS device and they are being discharged then, if either the patient, or the member of hospital staff, discharging the patient made contact with the pharmacy on every occasion - well in advance to allow access to the prescription, then appropriate arrangements could/might be made - avoiding any risk of the patient being without medication?
This would also enable the pharmacy to carry out the "hospital discharge MUR"
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