Mount Isa Base Hospital, Queensland, Australia.
J Telemed Telecare. 2017 Dec;23(10):861-865. doi: 10.1177/1357633X17732367.
Clinical pharmacy service delivery is currently a significant challenge in remote areas. Mount Isa Base Hospital provides clinical pharmacy support to ten remote sites across an area of over 300,000 square kilometres. These sites do not have on-site pharmacists available and, due to the vast distances and unpredictable travel conditions, the outreach pharmacist from Mount Isa Base Hospital only visits sporadically. Provision of direct patient care and advice on medication safety with this model was restricted and insufficient. Telepharmacy provides an opportunity for these services to be vastly expanded. In an attempt to increase pharmacist accessibility for remote hospital sites, the Mount Isa Base Hospital pharmacy department developed an inpatient telepharmacy service. Telehealth equipment is being used to communicate directly with patients and hospital staff, review inpatient medication charts, generate patient medication lists, identify and resolve clinical interventions and provide medication-related advice and counselling. As a result of this implementation, all patients and health professionals in remote north-west Queensland hospitals now have access to a pharmacist. The number of inpatient medication reviews, clinical interventions and patient-pharmacist/clinician-pharmacist interactions occurring at each remote hospital site has increased. Since service initiation, 106 medication-related reviews have been completed via telepharmacy, including 48 patient interactions, and 111 medication-related interventions have been made. This paper outlines the process for the development of an inpatient telepharmacy service for remote hospitals and discusses the benefits and limitations associated with implementation.
临床药学服务在偏远地区目前是一项重大挑战。芒特艾萨基础医院为 10 个远程站点提供临床药学支持，服务范围覆盖 30 多万平方公里。这些站点没有驻场药剂师，由于距离遥远且交通条件不可预测，芒特艾萨基础医院的外展药剂师只能偶尔访问。由于这种模式下直接为患者提供护理和药物安全建议受到限制且不充分，远程药学服务应运而生。远程药学为这些服务的广泛扩展提供了机会。为了增加远程医院站点药剂师的可及性，芒特艾萨基础医院药房部门开发了一项住院患者远程药学服务。远程医疗设备被用于直接与患者和医院工作人员沟通，查看住院患者用药图表，生成患者用药清单，识别和解决临床干预问题，并提供药物相关建议和咨询。由于这项服务的实施，现在偏远的昆士兰州西北部医院的所有患者和卫生专业人员都可以获得药剂师的服务。每个远程医院站点的住院患者用药审查、临床干预和患者-药剂师/临床医生-药剂师互动的数量都有所增加。自服务启动以来，通过远程药学已完成 106 次与药物相关的审查，包括 48 次患者互动，并且已提出 111 次与药物相关的干预措施。本文概述了为远程医院开发住院患者远程药学服务的过程，并讨论了实施过程中的相关益处和局限性。
