Patient-centred improvement to repeat prescribing using the Always Event concept

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• General Practice Management
• Patient-Centered Care

Background:

• Repeat prescribing systems are crucial for efficient healthcare delivery.
• Always Events offer a framework for patient-centered improvements in healthcare.
• Existing repeat prescribing processes may have inefficiencies impacting patient service.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance a repeat prescribing system using the Always Event concept.
• To improve the efficiency and patient-centeredness of prescription services in general practice.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project was conducted in a UK inner-city general practice.
• The Always Event 'Repeat prescriptions should be ready and available to collect' was established.
• Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were employed, with patient feedback collected via questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Initial prescription readiness was 92.1%, with issues identified in request processing.
• System changes involved recording and informing patients of unprocessed requests.
• Post-intervention, prescription readiness improved to 97.4% (September), 96.2% (November), and 97.2% (February).

Conclusions:

• The Always Event approach effectively identified a key weakness in the repeat prescribing system.
• Simple system modifications led to significant improvements in prescription readiness and service efficiency.
• This patient-feedback-driven method enhanced the overall repeat prescribing service.