Quality improvement of community pharmacy services: a prioritisation exercise

Abstract

ObjectivesEffective strategies are needed to translate knowledge (evidence) into practice to improve the quality of community pharmacy services. We report the first step of a novel knowledge translation process which involved the systematic identification and prioritisation of community pharmacy services in Scotland which were perceived to require improvement and/or guideline development.MethodsThis process involved three stages and a stakeholder group comprising community pharmacists, policy makers, lay and pharmacy organisation representatives. A modified nominal group technique (NGT) was used for topic generation (August 2013) followed by an electronic Delphi survey (eDelphi), October–December 2013) and topic rationalisation (December 2013) based on feasibility, acceptability, and potential impact for practice improvement.Key findingsIn total, 63 items were identified during the modified NGT which were categorised into 20 topics to form the starting point of the eDelphi. In total, 74 individuals (mostly community pharmacists) indicated an interest in the eDelphi, which achieved response rates of 63.5%, 67.6%, and 70.3%, respectively in Rounds 1, 2, and 3. Consensus was achieved with six topics: promoting the appropriate sale and supply of over‐the‐counter medicines; patient counselling for prescribed medication; pharmaceutical care to promote medication adherence; promotion and delivery of a Minor Ailment Scheme; pharmaceutical care of vulnerable patients; and effective use of community pharmacy workforce. Of these, the priority topic selected for the next stage of the programme was promoting the appropriate sale and supply of over‐the‐counter medicines.ConclusionsThis study adopted a systematic, inclusive, and rapid approach to identify priorities for community pharmacy practice improvement in Scotland.

Qualitative study exploring the key determinants of information gathering to inform the management of over-the-counter (OTC) consultations in community pharmacies

“…The TRiaDS in Pharmacy (TRiaDS-P) programme comprised four stages1: a service-driven prioritisation exercise to identify priorities for community pharmacy practice improvement in Scotland. Through a systematic, service-driven prioritisation exercise, effective management of OTC consultations was selected as the target for improvement2 23; semi-structured interviews to explore the key determinants to information gathering during OTC consultations3; a national theory-based survey to identify key determinants of the target behaviour4; intervention development comprising identification of options for practice improvement interventions.…”

Implementation of medication reviews in community pharmacy: reaching consensus on stakeholders’ recommendations for mechanisms of change using the nominal group technique

“…NGT is a consensus method which allows key stakeholders to generate potential solutions to a given problem and establish consensus [ 32 ]. The method has been widely used in implementation research and has the potential to identify mechanisms of change for complex implementation questions [ 32 – 35 ]. As key stakeholders generate the mechanisms themselves, these are more likely to meet their needs and to strengthen ownership of the results as opposed to a Delphi method which involves more input from the research team [ 36 ].…”

Rapid Evaluations of Innovations: A Scoping Review

“…Fifteen studies reported methods they used with the aim of increasing the rapidity of a discrete element or stage of an evaluation, where the evaluation as a whole used standard methods (Table 4). (93)(94)(95)(96)(97)(98)(99)(100)(101)(102)(103)(104)(105)(106)(107)(108) This approach usually targeted the earlier stages of an evaluation, including research priority setting (93,94), ethical approval (95), and participant identi cation and recruitment. At later stages of the evaluation process we identi ed continuous collection or data analyses as a means to increase rapidity of evaluation in RCTs (104,106).…”

“…Summary table of included studiesPriority setting(93,94) Ethics approval, recruitment and participation, barriers(95)(96)(97)(98)(99)(100)(101)(102) Study design(103,104) Data collection and analysis (104-108) Use of alternative technology or data source: 10 studies Automation or otherwise increased speed of data collection, collation or analysis…”