Pharmacists are one of the important medical staff in different settings in order to provide adequate medical assistance to their clients. There are various pharmacy settings in which pharmacists themselves must be aware of the roles they need to play so as to prevent medical errors.
Pharmacists’ Role and Different Settings
Retail Pharmacy
One of the pharmacy settings is the Retail Pharmacy. This setting is an independent pharmacy, which includes, but not limited to supermarket and chain pharmacy. Retail pharmacies have the license to dispense medicines to the general customers. However, this type of setting does not involve dispensing prescription medications either through nursing homes pharmacies, through mail, hospital pharmacies, and other pharmacy settings. Prescribing error is one of the most common errors in this setting. That is why, in order to prevent it, retail pharmacists must identify any potential medication risks to prevent further error (ISMP). Pharmacists can use tools and materials in order to pinpoint the pharmacy system’s weakness in terms of medication-use to improve process in dispensing medication.
Hospital Pharmacy
Hospital pharmacy is another classification in pharmacy settings. It is the department or the organization of the hospital, Hospital pharmacy is responsible for the storage, procurement, packaging, preservation, compounding, sterilization, preparation, and distribution or dispensing all of the medicines in the hospital. This department is normally and must be located at the hospital’s central part. Thus, must have an adequate communication with the hospital’s various departments. Additionally, to further prevent medication errors, the hospital pharmacists must oversee the overall quality of drug distribution process. In order to achieve the improved medication safety, hospital pharmacists must also keep an eye on the prescription, dispensing as well as the preparation to the drug administration (Gucheelar et al. 1736).
Clinical Pharmacy
Clinical pharmacy is a health specialty in which describes services and activities of clinical pharmacists themselves. This setting includes the services of pharmacists in community pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and other pharmacy settings. The term not only implies an activity inside the hospital or a clinic. Meaning, both hospital and community pharmacists can perform in a clinical pharmacy setting. The roles of clinical pharmacists in order to prevent medication error are to monitor, detect, and even prevent dangerous drug interaction (ESCP). Thus, they must also pay attention to the drug dosage that needs further therapeutic monitoring.
Managed Care Pharmacy
Managed care pharmacy is another setting that puts pharmacists away from the usual technical roles of pharmacists. The managed care pharmacy focuses more on the different managed care organizations such as HMOs. Pharmacists who are in this setting can also be employed in retail pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and even consulting firms. Relatively, pharmacists in this setting have roles that can prevent medication error. One of the roles of a managed care pharmacists in reducing error in medication is by providing patient education (Grissinger, Globus, and Fricker 62). The interface between the pharmacist and the patient plays an essential role in avoiding errors in medication before it happens. The pharmacists must ensure that the prescription instructions were understood correctly by the patient. Otherwise, drug misuse might happen as a result of misunderstanding between the patient and the medical practitioner.
Consultant Pharmacy
Consultant pharmacy is another setting, which rooted in providing pharmacy service in many nursing homes. The concept of this setting is the provision of wide range of distributive, administrative, and even clinical services to different nursing facilities. Consultant pharmacy is not an exclusive profession to selected individuals. In fact, it does not require any degree at all. A motivated licensed pharmacist can be a consultant pharmacist. In relation, the role of consultant pharmacists to prevent medication error is to ensure that the medication order is being followed from its origin to administration to the patient (Washington.edu). Also, a consultant pharmacist must have the ability to appropriately manage the people especially when it comes to drug distribution safety. Thus, they must ensure that the facility staff knows the proper methods of administrating and storing all of their drug products.
Works Cited
European Society of Clinical Pharmacy. "What is Clinical Pharmacy." ESCP. N.p., 11 Dec. 2010. Web. 3 Oct. 2014. <http://www.escpweb.org/cms/Clinical_pharmacy>.
Grissinger, Matthew C., Nancy J. Globus, and Matthew P. Fricker. "The Role of Managed Care Pharmacy in Reducing Medication Errors." J Managed Care Pharmacy 9.1 (2003): 62-65. Print.
"Medication errors: hospital pharmacist perspective." National Institutes of Health 65.13 (2005): 1735-46. Print.
