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Federal Member for Indi explores Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting

A group of eight adults, medical professionals and a member of Parliament standing in the middle of an emergency department. All are smiling.
Front L-R: Garry Wilkes (Executive Director Medical Services), Libby Fifis (CEO), Jodie Moore (Emergency Department Nurse Unit Manager), Dr Helen Haines MP (Federal Member for Indi), Susan Trevillian (Deputy Director, Pharmacy). Back L-R: David Ford (Director of Pharmacy), Johann De Witt Oosthuizen (Clinical Director Emergency Department), Olivia Douglas (Pharmacist)

We recently welcomed Federal Member for Indi, Dr Helen Haines MP, back to NHW to learn about Partnered Pharmacist Medication Charting (PPMC).

PPMC is the process of a suitably credentialed clinical pharmacist, usually in the Emergency Department, reconciling a patient’s current medication by completing a Medication Management Plan, followed by liaison with the Emergency or Medical registrar on medicines for the patient before transcribing the doctor’s intentions onto the inpatient medication chart before it is verified and signed off by the doctor for correctness.

This process is the result of 3 separate published clinical trials by Erica Tong, a pharmacist at the Alfred Hospital. NHW implemented PPMC in 2023 after publication of regional hospital trial results, and our involvement in the third trial. A credentialed PPMC pharmacist from Albury Wodonga Health (AWH) has developed a credentialing process for participating pharmacists working in the Emergency Department at NHW.

PPMC has also been extended to oncology services at NHW, where the oncology pharmacist prepares all chemotherapy and adjuvant prescriptions in advance of verification and signing by the medical registrar. NHW now has 7 credentialed PPMC pharmacists, and in March 2024, completed 22 PPMC’s for patients admitted to NHW from the ED. Not only does this reduce prescribing and medication errors as per the trial results, it frees up time for Emergency and Medical unit doctors to concentrate on other duties whilst leaving the complicated process of prescribing to the credentialed pharmacist.