Northern pharmacies join Testsafe

14 July 2010

BY RAJESH KUMAR

Pharmacies in greater Auckland and Northland are becoming part of a regional initiative to improve information sharing among community and hospital providers.

TestSafe is a regional repository which brings together results from diagnostic tests conducted by the DHBs and community laboratories, and details on medications dispensed by community and hospital pharmacists.

Project manager Michael Furlong says more information is gradually being added to the electronic database for access by authorised providers at the point of care, so they get a more composite picture of a patient’s medical history.

The service will help in fast and more efficient delivery of care in hospitals, general practices and A&M clinics, where doctors can see what tests were ordered and medicines dispensed for their patient.

Work on Testsafe began two years ago. Following a partnership between Guild North and the Auckland DHBs, six Auckland pharmacies began piloting its dispensing component by accessing the repository and automatically sending their dispensing data from within their pharmacy management system.

Pharmacy One in Penrose was one of the six pilot sites that was able to successfully demonstrate the importance of pharmacy access to lab results, while dispensing for rest home patients.

As of 13 July, at least 160 Auckland pharmacies were already connected to Testsafe and Mr Furlong says the aim is to have all 304 connected by 1 August. Northland pharmacies will join subsequently.

However, the dispensing data will not be available for use by clinicians for another three months, to make sure the repository has enough of a base record to be clinically useful.

Panmure pharmacist Lyn Goddard, who has been part of the project since its inception, says from community pharmacy’s perspective, the significance of TestSafe is that pharmacists will have a full record of all of their patient’s dispensing.

“This means when a patient comes in to the pharmacy wanting to buy an over the counter product, we can see what they are on and, thus, stop potential interactions. Being able to see the patients’ full (dispensing) history enables us to check previous dispensing so we can check doses, brands etc.”

Pharmacists will also have access to a limited subset of lab test results held in TestSafe, which could prove useful for alerting them to contraindications, eg, if a patient has high creatinine, drugs associated with renal failure may be dangerous.

Ms Goddard says while pharmacist access to such information will be useful while providing Medicines Use Reviews (MUR), the service will also reduce the number of phone calls community pharmacists receive from their hospital counterparts, wanting to know what the patient was last dispensed before being admitted to hospital.

TestSafe is linked into the “eMedication Reconciliation” project, part of the broader Safe Medication Management programme being spearheaded by Hutt Valley DHB.

A Testsafe communiqué says pharmacies do not need to do anything extra to collect dispensing information and sending it to the repository. An update is installed on pharmacy software such as Toniq or LOTS which automatically sends dispensing data to TestSafe.

Ms Goddard says gathering of such data was included in the payment to community pharmacy when the Auckland metro add-on contract was introduced a few years ago.

“Since pharmacies have been paid to collect this data before TestSafe was set up and running, they don't need an extra model to fund it,” she says.

All pharmacies in the Auckland, Manukau and Waitemata region are currently receiving posters and pads to help them inform patients about TestSafe. Receipts for dispensed medicines will give patients a free phone number, 0508 TestSafe (837 872), to call if they don't want the information to be shared.

The website www.testsafe.co.nz also provides detailed information for GPs, patients, pharmacists and other healthcare providers, along with an option where patients can request an audit trail showing them who has accessed their results.

 

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