
An innovative self-monitoring tool developed by the director of Laniado’s pharmacy during research recently received official recognition by the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists.
The research, the first stage of which was presented 198 months ago at a conference of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, deals with reporting problems and improving the interface between pharmacy and hospital departments.
Since close supervision is essential in the pharmacy of a large medical center. Mr Said Amarna, director of the pharmacy at Laniado Hospital, developed self-management tools designed to encourage departmental and pharmacy staff to report any problems in the pharmacy’s ongoing conduct and to propose solutions.
“The organizational culture of an institution includes the component of reporting mistakes or problems”, said Mr Amarna. “We are not talking about an admission of guilt or reporting on colleagues. Mistakes or poor service are issues that every large organization must deal with. The quality of the organization is measured by its ability to learn from these mistakes and to carry out structural changes that eliminate them in the future”.
The monitoring tools to be presentted later on in the year include reports by pharmacists on problems in the pharmacy, on service to the departments and reports by the departments on misunderstandings with the pharmacy.
In order to carry out the research an internal information campaign was conducted in all the departments designed to encourage staff members to report on the issuing of prescriptions by the doctors. The campaign resulted in a 104% increase in reporting among the pharmacy staff and 20% among the departments.