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Partnership of Specialist Nurse and Specialist Pharmacist roles improves quality of care of IBD patients

European Statement

Clinical Pharmacy Services

Author(s)

Fernando Fuertes

Why was it done?

Monitoring of patients on immunomodulators increases the workload of consultants in gastroenterology outpatient clinics. Pharmacist-led monitoring clinics reduces the number of patients who had to discontinue treatment due to myelosuppression, optimises dosage by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), and increases adherence to blood monitoring.

What was done?

A creation of a outpatient pharmacist-led Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) clinic to monitor and optimised immunomodulators and biologic therapy. The role of the specialist pharmacist has added value and clinical oversight to the care of IBD patients as treatment with biologic therapy has become more prevalent. In addition, the pharmacist routinely participate in IBD multidisciplinary team meetings to help with decision-making and treatment optimisation.

How was it done?

The Department of Gastroenterology at Barnsley Hospital, developed the twin roles of a Specialist Gastroenterology Pharmacist and an IBD Specialist Nurse/Non-medical endoscopist in 2012 to augment IBD care. Both roles require accreditation for independent prescribing. The pharmacist has responsibility for therapeutic drug monitoring, the prescription of biologic treatment following induction and immunosuppressants, participate at MDT, patient support and patient education. The nurse oversees the clinical and endoscopic surveillance of patients including the running of the IBD telephone helpline service

What has been achieved?

Robust clinical, biochemical and endoscopic surveillance is crucial for the delivery of effective treatments and quality of care in IBD. Telemedicine and virtual clinics have become part of our mainstream clinical practice to allow our IBD patients rapid access to healthcare services, pathway-driven treatment decision-making processes and endoscopy. IBD specialist Nurse and pharmacist clinics allow efficient management of the Gastroenterology workload and show extremely high levels of patient acceptability and satisfaction.

What next?

IBD is a life-long condition associated with considerable ongoing morbidity. Patient’s social and psychological wellbeing can be affected if the disease is poorly controlled. It is proven the specialist role of the pharmacist adds value to the gastroenterology teams and improves patient’s care. However, there is a need to standardise the specialist IBD pharmacist like in others specialities such as haemato-oncologist pharmacist or anticoagulation pharmacist. A Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course has been launched in partnership with the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bradford (United Kingdom) to initiate this goal. Further recognition and awareness of the role is required with our profession to achieve the goal and improve patients’ quality of care.

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