Table 3 Top twelve solutions for medication safety in primary care
RANK | Proposed solution for medication safety problems in primary care | Total priority score | Breakdown point | Type of solution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Develop standardized template for discharge summaries (e.g. with clear indications of changes from admission to discharge and with rationale) | 97.4 | Prescribing | Task design |
2 | Reduce unnecessary medication/antibiotic prescribing | 96.4 | Prescribing | Task design |
3 | Minimize polypharmacy | 94.3 | Administering | Task design |
4 | Take patient’s co-morbidities more carefully into consideration when prescribing medications | 93.8 | Prescribing | Individual staff |
5 | To give clear guidelines to patients as to how frequently they need medication reviews | 92.7 | Communication with patient/carers | Patient |
6 | Computer system to automatically inform the patient and the GP when blood tests are overdue | 92.7 | Monitoring | Task design |
7 | Increase the use of e-discharge letters | 91.7 | Prescribing | Task design |
8 | Improve patient information leaflets | 91.1 | Communication with patient/carers | Patient |
9 | Unified medication and investigations records that have listings of allergies and current medications of patients across primary and secondary care. This will allow GPs to see who changed, why, when and what medication or a result of a test ordered in secondary care | 90.6 | Transfer of care | Task design |
10 | The development of shared care protocols | 90.1 | Transfer of care | Task design |
11 | Pharmacies should offer a check-and-collect service in addition to dispensing to only supply what’s needed. Explanation: Patients often have cupboards full of old medications | 90.1 | Dispensing | Task design |
12 | To write indications next to each prescribed medication | 90.1 | Prescribing | Task design |