Pharmacist-led clinical medication review service in primary care : the perspective of general practitioners

Nabergoj Makovec, Urška (author), Tomšič, Tanja (author), Kos, Mitja (author), Stegne Ignjatović, Tea (author), Poplas-Susič, Tonka (author)

Background: An advanced level medication review service (CMR) is systematically reimbursed and available nationwide in Slovenian primary care since 2016. CMR is performed by clinical pharmacists (CP). Close collaboration with general practitioner (GP) is required as they perform patient selection and make clinical decisions regarding patient’s medication. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in 2018 aiming to evaluate the perspective of GPs on the implementation of pharmacist-led medication review service in Community Health Care Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia. GPs of the patients, who provided written informed consent were invited for the interviews. The semi-structured interview consisted of 5 open ended questions addressing reasons for referral of the patients, implementation of CP recommendations and the GPs’ perspective of the service in general. Interviews were audio recorded with GPs written consent, transcribed verbatim and inductive content analysis was performed in NVivo11 Pro. Results: In total 38 interviews with 24 GPs were performed. The emerged themes were nested under 3 main domains representing Donabedian model of quality healthcare – structure, process, outcomes. The service structure is built on broad pharmacotherapy knowledge as the main CP competency, good accessibility, and complementarity of healthcare professions. Patients are mainly referred to the CMR due to polypharmacotherapy, however in majority there is a more in-depth reason behind (e.g., adverse events, etc.). Lack of time to recognize eligible patients and additional workload to study and implement the recommendations present the major challenges in the service process and therefore low number of referrals. CPs recommendations are mostly accepted, although the implementation time varies. When recommendation addresses medicines prescribed by a clinical specialist, the CMR report is forwarded to them for decision regarding implementation. The empowerment of the patients in medicines use was emphasized as the major benefit of the CMR, which consequently supports and enhances the quality of GP’s patient care. Transferability of recommendations to similar cases and high satisfaction with the service of GPs and patients, were mentioned. Conclusion: GPs experiences with CMR are encouraging and supportive and present a base for further growth of the service.

• Language: English
• Keywords: clinical medication review, clinical pharmacist, general practitioner, primary care, pharmacotherapy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FFA - Faculty of Pharmacy
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 24, art. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-143745
• UDC: 615.15:616-085:616-083
• ISSN on article: 2731-4553
• DOI: 10.1186/s12875-022-01963-w
• COBISS.SI-ID: 137115139
• Publication date in RUL: 11.01.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: BMC primary care
• ISSN: 2731-4553
• COBISS.SI-ID: 114320643

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: klinični pregled zdravil, klinični farmacevt, splošni zdravnik, primarno zdravstvo

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P1-0189
• Name: Farmacevtska tehnologija: od dostavnih sistemov učinkovin do terapijskih izidov zdravil pri otrocih in starostnikih