Development of an obstetrics triage tool for pharmacists in an urban medical centre

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Covvey, J. R. and Grant, J. and Mullen, A. B. (2015) Development of an obstetrics triage tool for pharmacists in an urban medical centre. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 40 (5). 539–544. ISSN 0269-4727 (https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12301)

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Abstract

Obstetrics services are a high-throughput and high-risk environment poised for pharmacist involvement, but determining how to ideally allocate services is difficult. There is recent interest in the development of tools for service prioritisation, but none are specifically targeted to obstetrics. Therefore, the aim of this study was (1) to conduct a practice audit surveying the demographics of patients attending obstetrics wards at a high-capacity maternity hospital, and (2) to evaluate a triage tool developed to prioritise pharmacy services. A retrospective case review of women discharged after birth admissions was undertaken at a hospital in National Health Service (NHS) Scotland during June 2014. Demographic and admission data were collected, as well as pharmacist interventions and missed opportunities in patient care on postnatal wards. A pharmacy triage tool was developed and retrospectively applied to each case to ascertain a risk category that would trigger and target pharmacist review. Interventions/opportunities were classified as either clinical (medication-related) or administrative (potential for error development). 175 cases were reviewed with a median age of 29 years old. Eighty-six patients (49.1%) were retrospectively classified with elevated risk using the triage tool. A total of 117 charts (66.9%) were identified with missed opportunities for pharmacist intervention, which was significantly higher among patients classified as higher risk (75.6 vs. 58.4%, p=0.017). Compared to low risk patients, patients with a higher risk classification had lower rates of administrative missed opportunities (55.4 vs. 80.8%, p=0.015), but numerically higher rates of clinical (26.2 vs. 9.6%, p=NS) and mixed clinical/administrative (18.5 vs. 9.6%, p=NS) missed opportunities, although this failed to reach statistical significance. Evaluation of a triage tool for obstetric services demonstrated potential for prioritising higher risk patients for pharmacist review and addressing opportunities for clinical improvements.

ORCID iDs

Covvey, J. R., Grant, J. and Mullen, A. B. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-5543;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:53477
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    October 2015
    Published
    25 June 2015
    Published Online
    18 May 2015
    Accepted
    Notes:Date accepted:18/05/2015 This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Covvey, J. R., Grant, J., & Mullen, A. (2015). Development of an obstetrics triage tool for pharmacists in an urban medical centre. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics. which has been published in final form at http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12301. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
    Subjects:Medicine > Pharmacy and materia medica
    Department:Faculty of Science > Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:25 Jun 2015 10:33
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 11:07
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/53477
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