Managing medicines: Reconciliation, PODs, and homecare
Medicines reconciliation
Medicines reconciliation on admission to hospital involves obtaining an up-to-date and accurate list of medication which the patient was taking pre-admission and documenting which medicines are to be continued, with-held or stopped. This is usually done by a pharmacist or technician. Medicines reconciliation may also need to be repeated if a patient is transferred between wards or on discharge. NICE recognise the importance of medicines reconciliation and provide further guidance in section 1.3 of their medicines optimisation guideline.PODs
You may hear some medicines referred to as PODs. These are a Patient’s Own Drugs – in other words the medicines that the patient brought in to hospital or which belong to the patient. In many Trusts, PODs are managed by a team of pharmacy technicians.
Homecare
A homecare service can deliver medicines and associated care, initiated by a hospital prescriber, directly to a patient at home. There are a number of different companies that can undertake this work. They may take on complex situations such as injections that need to be given by a healthcare professional, or more straightforward areas such as supplying oral medicines that a patient can administer themselves.Homecare can enable selected patients to enjoy all the benefits of staying in their own home, whilst still receiving the medicines and care that they need. It can also be more cost-effective for the NHS and reduce pressure on hospital services. It is an expanding area and pharmacists play a key role in setting up and maintaining homecare services for medicines to ensure they run smoothly and safely.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published Professional Standards and a Homecare Handbook. These are detailed publications, but you might like to browse them to understand a little more about the types of service available and the safeguards that are needed. You can also learn more about homecare on the National Clinical Homecare Association website.