PSQ1 – Involve patients in improving their care!

 Linked to EAHP Statements

Section 4 – Clinical Pharmacy Services: Statement 4.1
Section 5 – Patient Safety and Quality Assurance: Statements 5.2, 5.4, 5.5

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-21-025-L05-P. A knowledge-based activity. 

Abstract
It is increasingly recognised that patients and carers can play a key role in their own healthcare, including safe use of medicines and identifying aspects of unsafe or poor care. This session will focus on two aspects of this role.

First, pharmacovigilance aims to enhance patient care and safety regarding the use of medicines through effective lifecycle monitoring. Information on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) under real-life conditions allows for a comprehensive assessment of the risk-benefit profile of medicines. Patient reporting of ADRs has shown to provide new information and perspectives on ADRs that would otherwise be inaccessible. So, how can hospital pharmacists support and encourage patients to report ADRs? What is known of the cooperation pharmacistpatient regarding drug safety? What strategies and processes can be used to support the contribution of hospital pharmacists in pharmacovigilance? The first part of this this session will therefore outline the evidence regarding the contribution of patients and carers in identifying and reporting ADRs, highlighting cases of safety signals and the impact of ADRs on patients’ lives. It will also explore the role and participation of hospital pharmacists as key safety officers, helping in the detection of ADRs and engaging with patients to enhance patient care and safety in relation to the use of medicines.

Second, while hospital pharmacists are more involved in, and even leading, medication safety initiatives, patient or carer involvement in medication error reporting and learning is not yet widespread. The second part of this session will therefore summarise the evidence for patients and carers being able to identify medication errors in the hospital setting, being willing to raise their concerns with healthcare professionals, and being willing to report incidents of concern. It will then consider patient and public involvement in the analysis of medication error data, both in practice and as part of research. Finally, the potential role of hospital pharmacy staff in encouraging and supporting such patient, carer and public involvement will be explored.

Learning objectives
After the session, participants should be able to:
• describe how patients and carers can be encouraged to report ADRs in the hospital setting;
• list at least two benefits to patients and carers being involved with medication error reporting and analysis in the hospital setting;
• recommend at least one strategy to encourage patients and carers to raise concerns about medication errors in their own area of practice.

Educational need addressed
The seminar shares best practice and supports hospital pharmacists in using research evidence to involve and empower patients and carers in adverse drug reaction and medication error reporting.

Keywords: patient safety, patient involvement, pharmacovigilance, adverse drug reaction reporting, medication safety, medication error reporting, learning from errors.