Where’s the patient information?

A new semester has started, and we have welcomed a new group of students to our Pharmacy Technician Program. One of the first things we discuss is gathering patient information in community pharmacy. We discuss all the information needed to create and maintain an accurate and complete patient profile and why this information is needed. We often welcome new students who have experience as a pharmacy assistant and I always get some looks when I mention asking patients for allergies, medical conditions and over-the-counter medications and natural health products, and indication for use—at every visit.Read: Helping close the vaccination gapI’m not sure how widespread gathering these pieces of information is and perhaps I am more accustomed to gathering all this information from my experience in hospital.When I had my Ontario College of Pharmacists' practice assessment, gathering these pieces of information was a discussion my advisor and I had. I had always asked the patient about allergies, but only documented on their profile if there had been any changes. I’ve asked about OTCs and natural health products for years, and I attribute this to teaching a course on natural health products where we look at common reactions with prescription medications. I wasn’t really accustomed to asking about medical conditions, as I worked on the assumption that we could figure out medical conditions based on the medications a patient was prescribed and I had heard about asking for indication for use and was just starting to practice this when I had my assessment.Read: Tech thrives in tackling new challengesMy advisor had some really great points that solidified gathering all this information from patients.Regarding medical conditions, we don’t always know all a patient’s conditions. I have had experiences where patients were receiving drug therapies from specialty pharmacies that we knew nothing about and so didn’t see prescriptions for a specific medical condition. I have also had experiences in hospital where a regular patient at the community pharmacy where I worked was receiving medications in hospital for dialysis, but we had no information about this at the community pharmacy.Regarding requesting indication for use, this helps the pharmacist complete the therapeutic or clinical check. I had been accustomed to the pharmacist discussing indication for use with the patient at the end of the dispensing process when they counsel the patient. But how many times have you had the experience where the pharmacist counsels the patient and through discussion with the patient discovers, after the prescription has been filled, that there was a problem? I have seen it happen many times. As a patient, I have had experiences where I have dropped off a prescription for myself or a family member and I have only been asked to provide my demographic and insurance information. I have had experiences where the pharmacy is not aware if I have any allergies, or if I have been diagnosed with any medical conditions, what OTC and NHPs I am taking, or why a medication was prescribed to. Luckily, I have a lot of reliable access to information about medications, OTCs, NHPs, etc. I have caught potential interactions between a mineral I supplement with and an antibiotic prescribed. I have caught potential interactions between a medical allergy a family member has and a medication that was prescribed. But what happens to most of our patients who do not have this knowledge or access to it, or a high health literacy?That is where we come in. This is our job: ensuring patients receive their medications in the safest way possible. It starts right at prescription drop-off. It also starts with us gathering all patient information, even if this includes information you are not used to gathering.My OCP advisor also brought up the idea of a Patient In-Take Form. When I went to my dentist for the first time, I had to fill out a patient in-take form. When I went to my chiropractor for the first time, I had to fill out a patient in-take form. And when I went to my massage therapist for the first time, you guessed it, I had to fill out a patient in-take form. All these forms asked me about medications, medication conditions, OTCs, and natural health products. But I have never been asked to fill out a patient in-take form at a pharmacy. And why not?I’m curious. Do you use a patient in-take form at your pharmacy? Would you consider implementing one?

Where’s the patient information?

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Blog Author

Sarah-Lynn Dunlop

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