School of Pharmacy, University College Cork, College Road, Cork, Ireland.
Int J Clin Pharm. 2023 Aug;45(4):903-912. doi: 10.1007/s11096-023-01563-3. Epub 2023 May 9.
When prescriptions are being processed in pharmacies, 'rework' is a phenomenon where an activity occurs that requires the return to a prior procedural step in the process for correction. To date, little is known regarding rework prevalence in community pharmacies or how this might be minimised.
To evaluate the cause and frequency of prescription rework in community pharmacies.
A list of reworks was designed for community pharmacists to self-record prescription rework instances and causes in their workplace across a two-week period. Community pharmacists in Ireland were recruited via convenience sampling and snowballing. Descriptive statistics were used to assess rework frequency according to the various causes, as well as the pharmacist and pharmacy characteristics.
Eight pharmacists participated, recording 325 reworks across 92.9% of the 65 study days (mean 5 reworks/day). The pharmacists' mean ranged from 1.82 to 15 reworks/day. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians alone or together were involved in 72.3% of reworks. The three most common rework categories were involving labelling errors (22.8%), prepared prescriptions which necessitated opening and repackaging (15.1%), and medication owings to patients (13.9%).
This study reveals that prescription rework occurs frequently in community pharmacies and has provided an indication of some of the main causes. These findings demonstrate areas where pharmacy staff can address rework and should aid the development of approaches to minimise rework in future - thus decreasing workload and facilitating more time for community pharmacy staff to focus on providing patient care.
在药房处理处方时，“返工”是一种现象，即发生需要返回流程中先前步骤进行更正的活动。迄今为止，人们对社区药房中返工的普遍程度知之甚少，也不知道如何将其最小化。
评估社区药房中处方返工的原因和频率。
为社区药剂师设计了一份返工清单，以便在两周的时间内在工作场所记录处方返工的实例和原因。通过便利抽样和滚雪球抽样招募爱尔兰的社区药剂师。根据各种原因以及药剂师和药房的特点，使用描述性统计来评估返工频率。
有 8 名药剂师参与，记录了 325 次返工，涉及 65 个研究日中的 92.9%（平均每天 5 次返工）。药剂师的平均范围从 1.82 次到 15 次返工/天。药剂师和药剂师技术员单独或一起参与了 72.3%的返工。返工的三个最常见类别是标签错误（22.8%）、需要打开和重新包装的已配好的处方（15.1%）以及由于患者原因导致的用药错误（13.9%）。
这项研究表明，处方返工在社区药房中经常发生，并提供了一些主要原因的迹象。这些发现表明了药房工作人员可以解决返工问题的领域，并应有助于未来开发减少返工的方法-从而减少工作量，并为社区药房工作人员提供更多时间专注于提供患者护理。
