Mapping the resilience performance of community pharmacy to maintain patient safety during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background The first UK wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 placed unprecedented stress on community pharmacy. Various policies and initiatives were announced during this period to support community pharmacy to continue to perform in a manner that prioritised patient safety. However, little is understood about how these policies and initiatives were implemented by staff working in community pharmacy, and the system adaptions and responses that were initiated to maintain patient safety. Objective The study aimed to investigate how staff working in UK community pharmacy during the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 responded and adapted to system stressors to maintain patient safety. Methods We adopted a qualitative interview approach, underpinned by Resilient Healthcare theory, with interview data collected between July 2020 and January 2021. Data were synthesised and analysed using Framework Analysis. Results 23 community pharmacy staff from England and Scotland were interviewed. We identified five themes supported by between two and six sub-themes: 1. Covid-19, an impending threat to system. 2. Patient safety stressors during the first waves of Covid-19.3. Altering the system, responding to system stressors. 4. Monitoring and adjusting. 5. Learning for the future. Conclusion Privileging the accounts of community pharmacy staff working on the frontline during the pandemic illuminated how responses and adaptions were developed and deployed, how continual monitoring occurred, and the factors that supported or hindered system resilience. The key learning derived from this study can serve to shorten the gap between ‘work as imagined’ and ‘work as done’, and in doing so, support the future resilience performance of community pharmacy during future outbreaks of Covid-19 or similar events.

A survey of pharmacists' perception of the work environment and patient safety in community pharmacies during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This reduction in opening hours was used to “catch up” on backlogs of tasks in order to ensure patient safety in dispensing. 18 …”

“…17 In a qualitative study in England and Scotland about the response and adaption among community pharmacist to maintain patient safety during the first year of the pandemic, the dedication of the staff was found to be the main explanation for the claim that patient safety was not compromised. 18 Managing the initially intense workload was prioritised, and services not recognised as crucial to patient safety such as retail work were reduced according to the study.…”

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Patient Safety Culture: A Cross-Sectional Study among Community Pharmacies in Jordan

“…Regarding the PRR across the patient safety culture dimensions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Teamwork” dimension scored the highest PRR (90.1%). This finding emphasizes the importance of teamwork during the pandemic as being critical to the patient safety practices that produce particular efficiencies and communication patterns, thereby increasing the capacity of pharmacies to deal with pandemic-related work surges in the community pharmacy context [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Comparison of Perceived Importance and Performance of Community Pharmacists’ Role in South Korea During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

“…The third section of the survey focused on the factors limiting the performance of CPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The factors were selected based on previous literature reviews 24,25 and the opinions of academic experts in pharmacy practice and education. The selected factors included time, economic compensation, sense of duty and awareness, government policy, consumer demands for CP services, doctors' willingness to cooperate with pharmacists, availability of communication channels, and legal limitations of CPs' responsibilities.…”