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Publication

Older patients' prescriptions screening in the community pharmacy

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Subtitle:development of the Ghent Older People's Prescriptions community Pharmacy Screening (GheOP³S) tool

BACKGROUND: Ageing of the population often leads to polypharmacy. Consequently, potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) becomes more frequent. Systematic screening for PIP in older patients in primary care could yield a large improvement in health outcomes, possibly an important task for community pharmacists. In this article, we develop an explicit screening tool to detect relevant PIP that can be used in the typical community pharmacy practice, adapted to the European market.

METHODS: Eleven panellists participated in a two-round RAND/UCLA (Research and Development/University of California, Los Angeles) process, including a round zero meeting, a literature review, a first written evaluation round, a second face-to-face evaluation round and, finally, a selection of those items that are applicable in the contemporary community pharmacy.

RESULTS: Eighteen published lists of PIP for older patients were retrieved from the literature, mentioning 398 different items. After the two-round RAND/UCLA process, 99 clinically relevant items were considered suitable to screen for in a community pharmacy practice. A panel of seven community pharmacists selected 83 items, feasible in the contemporary community pharmacy practice, defining the final GheOP³S tool.

CONCLUSION: A novel explicit screening tool (GheOP³S) was developed to be used for PIP screening in the typical community pharmacy practice.

Journal: Journal of Public Health
ISSN: 1741-3842
Issue: 2
Volume: 38
Pages: 158-170
Publication year:2016
Keywords:Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Belgium, Community Pharmacy Services/standards, Consensus, Delphi Technique, Female, Humans, Inappropriate Prescribing/prevention & control, Male, Pharmacies/standards, Practice Patterns, Physicians', Prescription Drugs, Primary Health Care
Authors:International