These steps include checking prescriptions and dispensing labels for accuracy, ensuring suitability of medications, doses and directions, and assessing prescriptions for potential problems, such as interactions with other medications and drug allergies.
If the barcode is scanned in an EPS-enabled phanmacy, an electronic copy of the prescription data can be downloaded to the pharmacy computer to populate the patient medication record and dispensing labels; alternatively the paper prescription can be dispensed as for a non-EPS prescription.
Labelling errors were those concerning the dispensing label.
Dispensing errors may involve the wrong product being dispensed ('content errors') or the wrong information being printed on the dispensing label ('labelling errors').
For example, a dispensing label with a missing advisory label as well as an additional advantageous label would, in theory, require two classifications: 'labelling error' and 'enhancement'enhancement
For example, it was agreed that if a prescriber specified an indication on the prescription (such as omeprazole 'for oesophagitis'), then omission of this indication from the dispensing label was a labelling error.
The apparent increase in labelling errors was largely accounted for by errors at a single pharmacy in which the indication, where specified by the prescriber, was not included on the dispensing label.
We inspected the raw data to explore the cause of this difference and found that the largest absolute and relative percentage increase was attributable to one specific type of labelling error involving the omission of the indication, where specified by the prescriber, from the dispensing label.
Instructions keyed in by the GP, such as '1OD' (one to be taken daily), are automatically transferred by EPSR2 to the dispensing label; an amendment then has to be made manually by pharmacy staff, resulting in errors if this is not done or done incorrectly.
EPSR2-specific interventions largely involved pharmacists translating shorthand directions (that the GP had typed and would appear verbatim on the dispensing label) into more patient-friendly versions, such as '1BD' changed to 'Take one tablet twice a day'; others involved changing the wording slightly to fit their preferred professional style.
As well as increased efficiency, the expected benefits of EPSR2 included gains in patient safety, as theoretically there is no need for pharmacy staff to re-enter a prescriber's instructions or interpret illegible prescriptions, thereby reducing the risk of errors involving transcription of information onto the dispensing label.
