| National implementation of standards of practice for non-prescription medicines in Australia. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 19048386 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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In Australia, there are two categories of non-prescription medicines: pharmacy medicines and pharmacist only medicines. Standards were developed to define and describe the professional activities required for the provision of these medicines at a consistent and measurable level of practice. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to implement nationally a quality improvement package in relation to the Standards of Practice for the Provision of Non-Prescription Medicines. METHODS: Approximately 50% of Australian pharmacies (n = 2,706) were randomly selected by local registering authorities. Trained pharmacy educators audited each community pharmacy in the study three times, 7 weeks apart on Standards of Practice for the Provision of Non-Prescription Medicines, Visit 1 involved the educator explaining the project and conducting an assessment of the pharmacy's level of compliance. Behaviour of community pharmacists and their staff in relation to these standards was measured by conducting pseudo-patron visits. Pseudopatron visits were conducted at Visit 2, with the educator providing immediate feedback and coaching and a compliance assessment. Visit 3 involved a compliance assessment, and a second pseudo-patron visit for those pharmacies that had performed poorly at the first visit. RESULTS: At Visit 1, the lowest levels of compliance were to the standards relating to the documentation process (44%) and customer care and advice (46%). By Visit 2, more than 80% of pharmacies had met most criteria. At Visit 3, compliance had significantly improved compared to Visits 1 and 2 (P < 0.001). The lowest levels of compliance were to criteria which required written operating procedures for specific tasks, but these also improved significantly over time (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Professional practice in relation to the handling of pharmacist only and pharmacy medicines improved considerably as measured by the auditing process, and the results indicate that Australian pharmacies are well-equipped to provide high quality service to consumers of these medicines. The acceptability of national implementation of these standards of practice in Australia indicates that such an approach could be taken internationally. |
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Authors:
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Shalom I Benrimoj; Andrew L Gilbert; Abilio C de Almeida Neto; Fiona Kelly |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article Date: 2008-12-02 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Pharmacy world & science : PWS Volume: 31 ISSN: 1573-739X ISO Abbreviation: Pharm World Sci Publication Date: 2009 Apr |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2009-03-24 Completed Date: 2009-08-03 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 9307352 Medline TA: Pharm World Sci Country: Netherlands |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 230-7 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. c.benrimoj@usyd.edu.au |
Export Citation:
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APA/MLA Format Download EndNote Download BibTex |
| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Australia Community Pharmacy Services / standards* Guideline Adherence / statistics & numerical data Nonprescription Drugs / standards* Practice Guidelines as Topic Program Development / methods* Quality Assurance, Health Care / standards* Time Factors |
| Chemical | |
Reg. No./Substance:
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0/Nonprescription Drugs |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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