Pharmacy feedback
Pharmacy feedback
Community pharmacies providing DMS have already identified benefits of the service for patients in relation to safety, efficacy and building relationships. Pharmacists report that:
- Patients are appreciative of the DMS call soon after they return home from hospital, finding the calls supportive, informative and caring
- DMS is very effective in identifying medicines that have been stopped which are still present in multi-compartment compliance aids, which pharmacists can rectify to reduce medication errors
- Conversations with patients have also revealed previously undisclosed sub-optimal adherence, which the pharmacist can address and encourage the patient to revisit with their prescriber
- As with other consultations, DMS becomes easier to conduct and manage with experience.
Reflective exercise
Think about a recent patient where a discrepancy was identified between the hospital medication list and your information.
- How could the DMS questions in this module have helped you explore the discrepancy in a non-judgemental way?
- Were you able to communicate with other sectors of care to obtain timely information?