Lecture 1: Quality Processes In Community Pharmacy Flashcards
What are the main reasons for having SOPs?
Other health providers and businesses apart from pharmacies will have SOPs to ensure that processes are carried out in an accurate and efficient way
What are the reasons for quality processes?
Public safety- right medicine for the right person at the right time
Staff safety- good for introducing staff to how things are done, establishes their boundaries.
Business safety- able to pay workers and manage the business
Personal safety- really important that everyone on site knows what to do in the event of a threat like an armed robbery etc
What does quality assurance involve?
Stepwise processes to ensure reliability, maintain ability and safety
What are the main reasons for quality assurance?
Safety Promote standardised practice Sets Minimum standards of practice Best practice Assurance for consumers Guidance for all services Continuous quality for improvement
How is quality achieved?
Through standards of practice Auditing Guidelines Policies Standard operating procedures
What are pharmacy SOPs?
Standard operating procedures which outline how to carry out a process in sufficient detail.
These are kept in a number of folders
What definitions does an SOP require?
What the task is
How it is carried out
Who does each part of the process
What does an SOP specify?
When the process should be done
Where it should be done
Who should do it
What are the risks if there are no SOPs in place?
Risks:
huge margin of error, as people do things differently
The process should be at a level of service you would expect for yourself.
A service with no standard may be a very poor and inconsistent
Why are SOPs required for pharmacy?
Makes it easier for new staff to undertake their jobs
Ensures all practices in pharmacy are consistent whenever the pharmacy is open
Helps to develop teams and ownership of work practices
Require to pass the audit
Allows for new system development (e.g. When errors occur.)
What is the general format of an SOP?
Why an SOP is needed (purpose)
Who does it (responsibility)
How to carry out the process (method)
Review date (when to be reviewed and who will review it)
What is the medsafe audit?
External audit processes
Assesses pharmacy SOP & standards of practice
New pharmacies and pharmacies that relocate need to have a licensing audit before they can open for business
What is the quality care pharmacy programme?
Launched in late 1990s by pharmaceutical society
Establishes a Quality platform for professional pharmacy services
Includes standards for the whole of pharmacy (professional standards, team standards, business standards)
Both Internal self assessment and external assessment is conducted
What is the purposes of protocols?
Ensures that processes of the pharmacy match the standards
E.g. Nz protocol for selling the ECP, WWHAM, evidence based guidelines
What is the format of protocols?
List of questions and actions
Conceptual
Clinical guidelines
How they work in practice
