Medication Safety

Medicines are the most commonly used clinical intervention, and errors can lead to avoidable patient harm, hospitalisation and death. This theme focuses on developing safety management systems to ensure safer care and treatment.

We explore how prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines within, and between, healthcare organisations can be improved.

We develop and test a number of new interventions by working across other themes at the GM PSTRC and utilising their expertise in informatics and behavioural science to address these major safety challenges.

Specific projects include:

The “REVISIT” project , looking at the impact of a pharmacist-led feedback intervention on the prescribing safety of general practice trainees.
Enhancing and evaluating our Medication Safety Surveillance system using primary and secondary care electronic health records to develop a library of prescribing safety indicators that can be deployed across the NHS.
Building on the success of our Patient Safety Toolkit for general practice, we have worked with our Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Collaborative to develop and test a patient safety and improvement toolkit for pharmacies in collaboration with the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE).
Evaluating the impact of an electronic Refer-to-Pharmacy scheme in Greater Manchester, examining the extent to which this could improve medication safety on discharge from hospital.

Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Collaborative

The NIHR Greater Manchester PSTRC set up the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Collaborative in 2015, as a way of sharing learning about quality and safety improvement.

A number of community pharmacists have been involved in the initiative, representing a range of pharmacy types, from small independent pharmacies to large chains. The meetings, which take place once a month, are mutually beneficial. The PSTRC’s Medication Safety team shares their knowledge on best practice in patient safety and risk management techniques with the Collaborative. In turn, the Collaborative shares their experiences and insights of practical day-to-day pharmacy practice with the PSTRC. Together, we are developing and testing resources to help improve patient safety in the community pharmacy setting.

The Greater Manchester PSTRC has published a number of blog posts written by members of the Patient Safety Collaborative. In these, pharmacists reflect on their involvement in the initiative and the changes this has brought about in their own pharmacies: