Researchers from the Division of Primary Care have developed an IT-based pharmacist-led intervention (PINCER) which has been shown to be effective in reducing prescribing errors in general practices (Lancet publication 2012). The intervention has now been supported by the National Institute for Health Care Excellence in its ‘Medicines Optimisation Clinical Guideline’ published 04/03/15 and available at:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng5/evidence
PINCER is specifically mentioned as follows (p.35):
‘Organisations and health professionals should consider applying the principles of the PINCER intervention to reduce the number of medicines-related patient safety incidents, taking account of existing systems and resource implications. These principles include:
Tony Avery (Chief Investigator for the PINCER trial) said: ‘It's great to see that the intervention we have developed is supported by NICE. We are about to embark on a large-scale rollout of PINCER in up to 526 general practices across the East Midlands (supported by a £500,000 grant from the Health Foundation, with additional support from the East Midlands Academic Health Science Centre). Endorsement from NICE will really help to encourage general practices and clinical commissioning groups to take part in this initiative.’
PRIMIS is pleased to provide ongoing information technology support, for both the large-scale rollout of PINCER across the East Midlands, and the development and maintenance of the free national PINCER audit tool. Based on the computerised queries used in the PINCER trial, this tool is an extension of the PRIMIS CHART (Care and Health Analysis in Real Time) Query Library and is now available free to all GP practices in England.
Documentation explaining the installation of CHART and downloading and installing audit tools is explained both on the CHART page and within PRIMIS Hub
Applied Health Research Building University Park University of Nottingham Nottingham, NG7 2RD