A team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted for a national award for excellence in pharmacy practices.
The newly formed emergency department pharmacy team has been shortlisted for the Excellence in Hospital Pharmacy Practice Award by the Clinical Pharmacy Congress. These awards celebrate the successes of individuals and teams within the pharmacy profession.
The team has been developed to enable patients to receive their medication reviewed and optimised much earlier in their admission; based within the emergency department at Royal Preston Hospital. Lancashire Teaching Hospitals are one of few nationally that have fully integrated a team of pharmacy professionals into the emergency department.
The team consists of a prescribing pharmacist, medicines management technician, and medicines management assistant. The team’s role includes accurately documenting medications histories at the point of admission, timely prescribing of regular medication for patients admitted into hospital, de-prescribing of unnecessary medications, review of medication that may have contributed to the emergency department attendance, and counselling of patients with regards to medication changes prior to discharge to name just a few.
Victoria Heald, Prescribing Pharmacist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: “The team and I are so pleased to have been recognised by the Clinical Pharmacy Congress for our work to improve patient care and experience. This way of working means that patient care and safety will be improved; medicines will be prescribed accurately, high risk medicines will be identified by the team and critical medications will not be missed.”
“From the award winning pilot study we carried out last year, the impact our team made to improving patient safety was exceptional and we believe this will continue to have a positive influence on the wards and overall flow within the hospital.”