Edge Health UK’s Post

I am thrilled to share that I am a co-lead author of a CASCADES Playbook discussing sustainable medication optimization in inpatient settings!♻️ Some Key Take Aways! 💊 Each medication has a environmental footprint and every medication appropriately deprescribed consequently has a positive environmental impact. 💊 Consider environmental data when completing Drug Use Evaluations (DUE). 💊 Consider developing new stewardship programs at your institution. (Read about Providence Health Care’s Anticoagulation Stewardship Program). 💊 Consider doing a comprehensive medication assessment when a patient is identified as Alternative Level of Care (ALC). This an opportunity to trial deprescribing in a monitored setting. 💊 Consider institutional QI Projects to assess prescribing trends and medication durations. University of Toronto Hamilton Health Sciences deprescribing.org Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (CSHP)/Société canadienne des pharmaciens d’hôpitaux (SCPH) Choosing Wisely Canada

We are happy to share our most recent scoping review on the role of pharmacist in community palliative care. Well-done to our honours students (now practising pharmacists!), Meredith Spence, Madison Lee, Nancy Naysoe, Ghaith Yako and Shereen Hanna for their commitment to this project and the contributions. 👏 Thank you Stani Goma for collaborating with us on this project and for the insights provided. Big thank you to Chiao Xin Lim and ieva stupans for their continued support and guidance. Dynamic and adaptive services that provide timely access to medicines are pivotal to ensuring that patients with palliative needs experience high quality care. In this review, we identified evidence informed prospective roles for pharmacists in community palliative care teams. The key areas pharmacists can contribute to in community palliative care are medication reviews, provision of education to patients and other healthcare professionals, and ensuring timely access to palliative care medicines. However, the following factors are vital to the successful integration of pharmacists in community palliative care teams: ✔ provision of ongoing training and mentoring for pharmacists ✔ access to patient information ✔ interdisciplinary communication and support ✔ sustainable funding

The Medication Optimization for Sustainability in Inpatient Care playbook (https://lnkd.in/gJDtBWfX) outlines strategies to address the environmental impacts of polypharmacy through medication optimization in inpatient settings. Medication optimization is a patient-centred approach to improving the effectiveness, safety and adherence of a medication regimen. Adopting it as part of standard practice can reduce the patient, health system, and environmental harms caused by inappropriate medication use. The playbook is published in partnership with the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care and reviewed by many national partners. It is intended for Canadian healthcare providers working in inpatient healthcare settings that are providing patient care, contributing to institutional policies and initiatives, and/or supporting electronic medical record systems. It includes background information, resources, and considerations to guide healthcare teams and institutions to implement medication optimization, thereby reducing their environmental impact. The content has been compiled from a review of literature and guidelines, interviews with experienced healthcare professionals, and guidance from academics in the field. The lead authors include three registered pharmacists, Ivy Lam, Sarah Fallis, and Lisa McCarthy, and family physician Myles Sergeant. Ivy Lam, a pharmacist for Unity Health Toronto, the Pharmacy Innovation Lead for CASCADES, and an Assistant Professor (Status-Only) for the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, notes the key role healthcare providers can play in addressing the growing environmental impact of medications. “We all know medications are a necessary tool in healthcare, but they also contribute to climate change and environmental pollution. As clinicians, we can have an impact through optimizing medication regimens while improving patient outcomes by decreasing the number of inappropriate medications and potentially avoidable hospitalizations. This playbook is designed by front line workers with hands on experience to provide meaningful practices to achieve this goal.”

🌟 The Transformative Role of Clinical Pharmacists in Primary Care 🌟 Clinical pharmacists are continuing to revolutionising primary care, delivering exceptional benefits by enhancing patient care, optimising medication use, and reducing GP workloads. 📉👩⚕️ 🔍 Key Impacts: 1. Reducing GP Workload: Clinical pharmacists help reduce GP appointments and emergency department visits, allowing GPs to focus on more complex cases. 📉 2. Improving Patient Outcomes: Managing long-term conditions and conducting medication reviews lead to better health outcomes for patients. 💊✅ 3. Cost Savings: By optimising medication use and reducing overprescribing, clinical pharmacists contribute to significant cost savings for the NHS. 💷 4. Enhanced Patient Satisfaction: Patients benefit from the additional support and expertise, improving access to healthcare services and reducing waiting times. 🕒 💼 Remote Clinical Providers: Enhancing Primary Care Remote Clinical Providers specialise in fully managed clinical pharmacist and pharmacy technician services, providing tailored solutions that optimise patient outcomes and operational efficiency. Their expertise helps practices utilize ARRS funding efficiently and mobilise quickly for short-term needs like sickness or maternity leave. 🚀 🔗 Learn more about how Remote Clinical Providers can support your practice: info@remoteclinicalproviders.co.uk Embracing the expertise of clinical pharmacists is a win-win for patients and healthcare providers alike. Let's continue to support and integrate these indispensable professionals into our primary care teams for a sustainable and effective healthcare system. 🌍🩺 #PrimaryCare #ClinicalPharmacists #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #NHS #RemoteClinicalProviders #Pharmacist

PM Healthcare Journal – Autumn 2024 In our autumn 2024 issue of the PM Healthcare Journal, we have a varied and interesting range of articles, providing us with some fascinating and informative insights. Danny Bartlett, pharmacist and clinician, reflects upon his journey to develop competence in treating and diagnosing the menopause, describing both the challenges and the rewards. (Navigating Menopause: The Journey of Competence in Treating and Diagnosing Menopause in Pharmacy Clinicians: A Reflection.) Nazir Hussain, Specialist Respiratory Pharmacist, describes how a one-stop respiratory care clinic in primary care can positively impact services and patient health, especially in areas of health inequalities. (Tackling Inequalities in Respiratory Care - The Impact of a Specialist Pharmacist “One-Stop” Respiratory Clinic in Primary Care.) Stuart Dark, Deputy Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Pharmacy Manager, and Faiza Khan, Chief Pharmacist, provide a fascinating insight into the implementation of a new operational model, derived from two manufacturing models, into clinical pharmacy services to deliver efficiencies. (Defining an Operational Model for Clinical Pharmacy.) Nadia Malik, Practice Pharmacist, and Suhrab Sayfi, Highly Specialist Pharmacist, examine the ‘epidemic’ of recent medicines shortages and what can be done to avert the current crisis in availability. (Are medication shortages the new pandemic?) And in our sponsored article, Jyotika Singh and colleagues examine the role of pharmacists and pharmacy teams in supporting an integrated care pathway to improve management of eosinophilic esophagitis in adults. As ever, please contact me with any ideas you have for articles and experiences you would like to share. Also, if there is a subject area that you would like to see covered in the Journal, perhaps in a special edition, do not hesitate to get in touch. Link to the autumn Journal here:

Key Components of a Discharge Summary Patient information: consists of the patient's name, birthdate, medical record number, date of admission, and date of discharge. Admission Information: explains the cause of admission as well as the preliminary diagnosis. Hospital Course: Provides an overview of the major events, therapies, and processes that took place during the hospital stay. The primary and secondary diagnoses at discharge are listed in the discharge diagnosis. Medication: Gives a rundown of the prescriptions the patient took, along with any modifications made before discharge. Instructions for Follow-up Care: Contains information on appointments for follow-up care, specialist referrals, and any further instructions for care. Patient Instructions: Contains information on food suggestions, activity limitations, and other patient education topics. Continuity of Care: A discharge summary facilitates seamless care continuity by making sure that key information is shared with primary care physicians and other healthcare providers. Prevention of Readmissions: Discharge summaries help avoid avoidable readmissions by giving clear instructions on medication management, follow-up appointments, and warning signs of complications. Patient Understanding: Discharge summaries give patients comprehensive information about their hospital stay, their treatment options, and what to anticipate from their recuperation, enabling them to actively participate in their own health care. Care Coordination: They are essential in facilitating the coordination of care between various healthcare providers, guaranteeing that all parties involved in the patient's care are aware of and in agreement with one another. Legal Documentation: Discharge summaries function as an official documentation of the patient's hospital stay, prescribed medications, and care plan—information that can be essential for billing and legal reasons. Conclusion An efficient discharge summary is essential to providing patients with high-quality care. It helps healthcare professionals provide coordinated and knowledgeable care in addition to guaranteeing that patients receive the required follow-up care. Discharge summaries greatly improve patient satisfaction and health outcomes by reducing readmissions and improving patient understanding.

Delighted to share this article written by myself and Faiza Khan, looking at how industrial operational models can influence clinical pharmacy.

NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 4 focuses on developing an Improvement Plan Tool Kit, which likely includes strategies for enhancing healthcare quality, patient outcomes, and organizational performance. This assessment may involve evaluating current practices, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing evidence-based interventions. It's an opportunity for nursing professionals to contribute to continuous quality improvement and deliver better care to patients. If you want to learn more about this click the link below: https://lnkd.in/e4CyCVZ6

We are pleased to report that ABCOA continues to grow rapidly, with well over 200 member clinics (out of 620 in Alberta), all without a formal press release or mail-out. Dr. Don Wilson, our interim president, and I are in ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Health, and I’d like to reiterate that we are bound by Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), so we are restricted in sharing specific details of those discussions. However, what we can say is that we firmly believe there is sufficient funding in the healthcare budget to create a cost-effective system that could become the finest in Canada. If we can fix the broken business model for primary care clinics (PCM), there are significant savings to be realized. Our members have been incredibly supportive in forwarding helpful suggestions, which Dr. Wilson and I share during our collaboration with the Ministry of Health. We encourage you to keep sharing your ideas, as this collective input is vital for finding solutions. We believe that PCM is fundamentally owned by the government and, as the backbone of our healthcare system, it is in the government’s best interest to maintain, sustain, and expand these clinics. These medical clinics are a bargain for the government by reducing reliance on costly acute care services, saving billions of dollars. Unfortunately, PCM has been neglected by stakeholders, including our AMA, in recent years. In today’s environment, investing in a primary care clinic is simply unrealistic, particularly for younger physicians, who are understandably reluctant to take on such a responsibility. With a limited supply of physicians available to work in these clinics, many are forced to agree to financially unsustainable arrangements, just to keep their doors open. However, this only delays the inevitable closure of clinics, especially as many clinic owners approach retirement age. The situation is further exacerbated by Alberta's growing population and rising demand for care, leading to worsening access-to-care crises, poorer patient outcomes, and ballooning healthcare budgets. Another complicating factor is that clinic owners, who must spend 15 to 20 unpaid hours each week on administrative tasks, are unable to build large enough panels or practice medicine at the same capacity as non-clinic owners. When non-clinic owners are earning more than those running clinics, it is clear that the system is flawed. This is not an issue that can be solved simply with an across-the-board pay increase for primary care physicians. Dr. Wilson and I are tackling these complex issues head-on. ABCOA is committed to being a significant part of the solution. Best regards,

Ontario's primary care system is under pressure, with projections suggesting 4.4 million Ontarians could be without a family doctor by 2026. However, Physician Assistants (PAs) are emerging as a powerful solution to this healthcare challenge. Key insights: 💪 PAs can manage approximately 75% of primary care visits ↗ 95% of physicians working with PAs report increased patient capacity ❤️ 90% note improved quality of care with PA integration 🧘♀️ 88% of doctors say PAs improve their overall well-being As healthcare evolves, it's crucial for policymakers and institutions to recognize the value of PAs and address barriers to their full integration. By investing in PAs, we're not just supporting family doctors – we're protecting the health of Ontario's most vulnerable populations. What are your thoughts on integrating PAs more fully into Ontario's healthcare system? How can we overcome regulatory and funding challenges to maximize their impact? We love PAs at Healtheon! #HealthcareInnovation #PhysicianAssistants #PrimaryCare #OntarioHealth #Healtheon CanadaPAs 🍁