Care Homes Independent Pharmacist Prescribing Service: CHIPPS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Care Homes Independent Pharmacist Prescribing Service (CHIPPS): Development and delivery of a cluster randomised controlled trial to determine both its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
IRAS ID
173232
Contact name
David Wright
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The use of medicines in care homes could be improved and as a result the health of resident’s would be better. Pharmacist prescribers (i.e. pharmacists specifically trained to prescribe in a similar way to doctors), have already been shown to provide high quality care, which is safe and well received. We propose to test if making ‘pharmacist prescribers’ part of the care home team, working alongside general practitioners, could improve the use of medicines and the care of residents. These pharmacist prescribers could sign and order monthly prescriptions whilst carefully monitoring how each resident responds.
We believe that such a change to the management of medicines in care homes is likely to be a good use of NHS money. However, to develop and test this idea in the best way possible we need to undertake six smaller linked work projects (WP). This application is for the first part of this programme – WP1.
We will start WP1 by updating our knowledge of the research on how best to prescribe and use medicines in care homes. We will then use the expertise of those working in care homes to find out how best to introduce and use pharmacist prescribers so that they become an effective member of the team. At the same time, we need to find the best ways to measure the effect of these pharmacists on residents, staff and the home. To do that, we will need to look at how other researchers have measured the effect of changes in prescribing and rank those methods for suitability.
This will provide us with information about how we think it will be best to introduce, run and test this new service; this information will inform the next part of the programme – WPs 2-6.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/YH/0172
Date of REC Opinion
10 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion