A stepped wedge randomised controlled trial assessing the efficacy and patient acceptability of virtual clinical pharmacy in rural and remote Australian hospitals.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite medication being the most common healthcare intervention and medication-related incidents being common in hospitals, many rural and remote hospitals in Australia lack onsite pharmacy services due to resource constraints. A Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service (VCPS) staffed by two senior, rural generalist hospital pharmacists assigned to four hospitals each was implemented in rural and remote facilities to determine whether the VCPS increased adherence to National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS).

Methods

A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial was employed to sequentially implement a telehealth pharmacy service at one-month intervals in eight hospitals. The primary outcomes were patient-level medication reconciliation completion rates

SUBMITTER: Nott S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11552378 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature