Mundell, R.; Jamieson, D.; Shaw, G.; Thomson, A.; Forsyth, P. Patient Experiences of Community Pharmacy Medication Supply and Medicines Reconciliation at Hospital Discharge: A Pilot Qualitative Study. Pharmacy2024, 12, 66.
Mundell, R.; Jamieson, D.; Shaw, G.; Thomson, A.; Forsyth, P. Patient Experiences of Community Pharmacy Medication Supply and Medicines Reconciliation at Hospital Discharge: A Pilot Qualitative Study. Pharmacy 2024, 12, 66.
Mundell, R.; Jamieson, D.; Shaw, G.; Thomson, A.; Forsyth, P. Patient Experiences of Community Pharmacy Medication Supply and Medicines Reconciliation at Hospital Discharge: A Pilot Qualitative Study. Pharmacy2024, 12, 66.
Mundell, R.; Jamieson, D.; Shaw, G.; Thomson, A.; Forsyth, P. Patient Experiences of Community Pharmacy Medication Supply and Medicines Reconciliation at Hospital Discharge: A Pilot Qualitative Study. Pharmacy 2024, 12, 66.
Abstract
(1) Background: As part of the Scottish Governments five-year recovery plan to address the backlog in NHS care following the COVID-19 pandemic, community pharmacies in Scotland are planned to provide a Hospital Discharge Medicines Supply and Medicines Reconciliation Service. We aimed to qualitatively explore patients’ experience of this new service; (2) Method: Adult patients (≥18yrs age) who consented to participate in the Community Pharmacy Hospital Dis-charge and Medicines Reconciliation Service were invited for interview within 21 days of dis-charge from hospital. Qualitative, one-to-one, semi-structured, patient interviews were conducted by telephone and audio-recorded using Microsoft Teams®. The interview audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and underwent thematic analysis; (3) Results: 12 patients were inter-viewed, evenly split by sex and with a median age of 62 years (range; 36 to 88 years). Analysis generated main five themes; Patient Engagement, Stakeholder Communication, Practical Factors, Human Factors, and Comparative Experiences. Many of these were interdependent; (4) Con-clusions: Patients appreciated that the service ensured a quicker discharge from hospital. Good stakeholder communication, practical factors (including choice, location, and the realities of ob-taining their medication from the community pharmacy), and a pre-existing and trusted rela-tionship in their usual community pharmacy were the key factors that regulated the patient ex-perience. In the main, patients were positive about the introduction of this new service. However, a lack of previous relationship or trust with a community pharmacy, and previous experiences with medication supply problems were factors which had the potential to negatively impact on patient experiences.
Keywords
Hospital Pharmacy; Community Pharmacy; Medication; Qualitative Research
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Pharmacy
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
