Sharing learning and driving improvement through regular team meetings

Pharmacy type

Community

Pharmacy context

​COVID-19

Relevant standards

• 1.2 - The safety and quality of pharmacy services are regularly reviewed and monitored

Why this is notable practice

The pharmacy is holding regular clinical governance meetings to help manage the risks associated with providing its services during a national pandemic. It uses these meetings as an opportunity to share learning and to drive improvement.

How the pharmacy did this

The pharmacy continued to hold regular clinical governance meetings throughout the pandemic. This helped to share information and learning. The team recorded its near misses and incidents on an electronic data base. It discussed trends in the types of mistakes during the clinical governance meetings. And it had used the latest review to revisit procedures related to selecting medicines from the pharmacy’s shelves during the dispensing process.

The pharmacy team had also used the latest meeting to talk about the risks associated with complacency now that team members had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The team had identified that their behaviour should not change, and that wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) correctly, social distancing and following COVID-19 standard operating procedures needed to remain normal behaviour. The pharmacy had reinforced this message by asking the team to reflect on its current workflow and making some improvements to help manage this better. For example, downloading and printing Electronic Prescription Service prescriptions in smaller batches meant that work benches could remain relatively clear and reduced the risk of multiple members of the team requiring access to the same area of the dispensary at any given time. It also reduced the risk of error as it reduced work pressure on the pharmacist.

What difference this made to patients

People using the pharmacy receive a safe service which is continually monitored. They are served by team members who do their upmost to reduce the risk of spreading the virus through their working processes.