Medicines management in primary care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating medicines management processes in primary care
IRAS ID
136971
Contact name
Denham Phipps
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Research summary
Medicines are the most commonly used clinical intervention and complications associated with their use constitute one of the most common causes of adverse events in healthcare. A recent large-scale study of medication errors in general practice found that 5% of all prescriptions are associated with prescribing or monitoring errors. Given that each year 927 million prescription items are issued in primary care in England alone, improvements in medication safety management in primary care would clearly lead to substantial improvements to the health of patients.
The proposed study is intended as a precursor to an intervention to improve medication safety in primary care settings. Before the intervention can be specified, there is a need to better understand what the critical tasks are in medicines supply, and what is required of staff in conducting these tasks.
The aim of the study is to determine the nature of, and challenges encountered in, primary care medicines management. We would like to understand what happens in the course of medicines management, and what facilitates and hinders staff in the performance of safety-critical tasks. Our work will consist of two main activities:
• Observations. We will conduct participant observation of medicines management activities at general practices and community pharmacies. At each site, details will be recorded about the tasks conducted, the staff and equipment involved in task completion, the technical and non-technical skills required and the presence of performance-shaping factors such as workload and interruptions;
• Interviews. We will conduct a series of interviews with representatives of the professional groups and service users involved in medicines management. These interviews will be used both to validate the observational data and to elicit further insights about medicines-related activities.REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/1531
Date of REC Opinion
11 Nov 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion