THE Victorian Branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has launched the final report of the 'Improving Medication Reconciliation in Community Settings' project in Victoria.
Victorian Guild president Anthony Tassone said the project had been developed and implemented in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS).
The aims of the project included understanding the barriers and enablers of medication reconciliation service in community pharmacy, given that poor medication reconciliations can result in unplanned hospital admissions, Tassone explained.
"Community pharmacists are highly accessible and well placed to provide medication reconciliation," he said.
The report highlights that 2-3% of Australian hospital admissions are medication related, a figure that has remained unchanged "for over a decade".
According to the literature, more than 50% of medication errors occur at transitions of care and 85% of discrepancies in medication treatment originate from poor medication history taking.
In the project's pilot medication reconciliation service, a community pharmacist educated the patient at three time points over a six month-period on aspects such as dosing, indication for use, interactions, side effects and storage and providing patients and their GPs with a reconciled list of their medications.
The pilot results have demonstrated this was not only achievable but would result in better health outcomes with over 80% of participants reporting better understanding of their medications and increased confidence in managing their medicines.
"Through this pilot we were able to identify and assist patients on multiple medications and complex regimens particularly following a visit to a specialist or recent hospital admission" said Mehul Mehta, one of the participating pharmacists.
Tassone thanked participating pharmacists for their contribution to the success of the pilot program and the DHHS for supporting the initiative.
Visit guild.org.au for the report.
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