Know Your Medicines: The implementation of a patient-centred service in community pharmacy

The statistics in relation to non-adherence to prescribed medication make for stark reading. Non-adherence to medication is costing European governments an estimated 125 billion annually and is contributing to the premature deaths of nearly 200,000 Europeans every year (IPU, Pfizer and IPA, 2014). The overall aim of this project was to introduce a patient- centred service that would improve adherence to prescribed medicine in the writer’s place of work, community pharmacy.

A literature review was conducted by the writer to identify the advantages and challenges associated with patient-centred care, the methods of introducing patient-centred services were also reviewed. The HSE model was chosen to articulate the change in a systematic and structured approach; the four stages included in the change model are initiation, planning, implementation and mainstreaming.

Evaluation of the project included a mixed method approach. This included questionnaires, observation and informal interviews. Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation was used to evaluate the educational aspects of the project.

Overall, the main objectives of the project were achieved. The change process resulted in an improvement in patient engagement and medicines adherence. Pharmacists welcomed the opportunity to develop their professional role and counselling skills. The “know your medicines” service provided an opportunity for pharmacist and patient collaboration. Moreover, the service was perceived as beneficial to patients and will be further disseminated to the entire organisation before the end of 2015.