Community Pharmacy Case Studies

The Summary Care Record (SCR) is a Case Study - Patient Safety

secure, electronic patient record that
At Woodhouse Pharmacy in Sheffield, a
contains key information derived from
patient contacted the pharmacy outside
patients’ detailed GP records. It is often
their GP’s opening hours to ask the pharma-
accessed in emergency and unplanned
cist about which medication she was meant
care scenarios, where such information
to be taking.
would otherwise be unavailable.
The patient had been prescribed two different
The core dataset contains information about
antibiotics on the same day, but was unsure
a patient’s medication, allergies and any
which one she was meant to be taking for her
previous adverse reactions to medicines.
current illness. Due to the confusion, she
Other information such as significant medical
sought advice at the pharmacy.
history, care plans, patient wishes or
preferences (and other relevant information) By accessing the Summary Care Record,
can be added with the consent of the patient. pharmacist Stewart Kelly was able to see that
the patient had been prescribed both
The SCR is already accessed by staff across
Amoxicillin and Doxycycline. One course had
a number of different care settings, including
been prescribed in the morning and another
hospital pharmacies, GP out-of-hours ser-
had been prescribed as a replacement later the
vices, A&E, and many others. Community
same day, but the patient did not know which
pharmacy access to SCR is currently being
was which.
implemented and this document provides
three case studies for community pharmacy Stewart also identified that the ‘Allergies’
access to the SCR and the benefits seen in section within the patient’s SCR showed an
each scenario. allergy to penicillin. He was therefore able to
advise the patient not to take the Amoxicillin.
For more detailed information on the
He said “Had the patient not contacted the
community pharmacy rollout please visit our
pharmacy, and had I not been able to access
web page
their SCR a significant patient safety incident
http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/scr/benefits/
could have occurred”.
community/index_html
By accessing the Summary Care Record,
pharmacists are more able to effectively
advise patient accordingly, instead of
referring patients to other care settings.
This leads to a reduction in serious drug
reactions and major threats to patient well-
being.
Case Study - Emergency Supply Case Study- Reduced Referrals
A patient came to Regent Pharmacy in A patient came to Weldricks pharmacy at
Northampton on a Saturday when their GP Darnall Primary Care Centre in Sheffield
surgery was closed, in need of an wanting to know if she was eligible for a
emergency supply of their medication. free flu jab.
The patient had an old repeat prescription slip The patient was unable to give the pharmacist
from March 2013, but was in need of a new her full list of current medication in order to
supply. They lived outside the area usually help check her eligibility, but by checking the
served by the pharmacy. patient’s SCR, pharmacist David Mehdizadeh
was able to see that she was being
The pharmacist asked for the patient’s prescribedxanximmunosuppressant
permission to view their SCR. Once he’d done (Azathioprine), which meant she was indeed
so he could see on the SCR that the patient eligible for a free vaccination, which he was
had received a repeat prescription the day able to provide immediately.
before. He was therefore able to provide the
patient with an emergency supply, as well as As this pharmacy is in the same building as a
advising on the dose and frequency with GP practice, patients tend to assume their pa-
which to take their medication, as this was all tient records are also linked They often come
available on the SCR. into the pharmacy with queries for which they
may otherwise have approached the GP
Pharmacist Ashkay Patel Said “The SCR is practice for. Access to SCR is helping the
very user-friendly and with just a few clicks the pharmacy to immediately answer more
patient’s record was in front of us. As a result queries from patients on the spot,
of this service, we can help the patients, GPs, facilitating more effective patient care and re-
and out-of-hours, in order to improve decision- sulting in less referrals to other care settings,
making at busy periods”. such as the local GP practice.
Without access to the patient’s clinical “On previous occasions I would have referred
information, the pharmacist would have had to the patient back to their GP or I would’ve had
refer the patient to out-of-hours, or else tell to contact the GP myself to check whether
him to go back to his GP on Monday to collect she was eligible”, David said. “However, with
his prescription. By issuing the emergency the patient’s consent I was able to access
supply, the pharmacist was able to save the their SCR within one minute to check their
patient time and ease the burden at out-of- medications. It caused no disturbance to the
hours or the patient’s GP practice. running of the pharmacy and no extra waiting
By accessing the SCR in such scenarios, time for the patient. By using the NHS Num-
pharmacists are able to use their profes- ber the process was really simple. The patient
sional judgement with the best available was extremely satisfied that I could deal with
information to respond effectively to emer- her query and did not refer her back into the
gency supply requests. community or to the GP.”
Access to the SCR means pharmacists are
more likely to be able to immediately deal
with ad hoc or urgent patient queries,
reducing the need to refer patients
elsewhere or to contact the patient’s
GP practice for more information.

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