Clinical pharmacy—a hospital perspective

Autor: Calvert Rt
Rok vydání: 1999
Předmět:
Zdroj: British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 47:231-238
ISSN: 1365-2125
0306-5251
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2125.1999.00845.x
Popis: All large acute hospitals have an on-site pharmacy department which has the key purpose of ensuring that patients can receive the right medicine at the right time by an efficient and economical system. Today most pharmacists would agree that they have a wider responsibility in ensuring that they apply pharmaceutical expertise to help maximise drug efficacy and minimise drug toxicity [1]. This concern of pharmacists for the outcome of treatment in an individual patient, which has developed in the UK over the last thirty years, characterises the practice of clinical pharmacy and has led to the concept of pharmaceutical care [2] as the description of the role of the pharmacist in patient care. Clinical pharmacy is not practised in a uniform manner in UK hospitals, a reflection of the diversity of pharmacy practice in general found amongst our hospitals. The input to patient care for example does vary, in some hospitals there are ward based pharmacists who practice as key members of the clinical team whilst in others a pharmacist may visit the wards on an irregular basis [3] to review medicine charts and promote formulary policies. This lack of consistency applies not just to clinical pharmacy, but is true of pharmaceutical services such as intravenous additive services, discharge planning services and almost all aspects of pharmacy services. The absence of central direction by the profession and by the Department of Health has enabled this diversity to flourish. Each major hospital’s service has developed in a way favoured by its pharmacy staff. Strong leaders have developed their own style of service varying from a supply orientated to a patient orientated service. They have frequently been more concerned with promotion of pharmacy within the hospital as opposed to disseminating information on service improvements to their colleagues. A result of this is that any benefits to patients from a new approach to service provision developed in one hospital, may not be realised by other pharmacy departments without a long lag time. Implementation of evidence based improvements in pharmacy practice could be accelerated if a more open approach to dissemination and promotion of developments was adopted by pharmacists.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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