An observational study of the cause and frequency of prescription rework in community pharmacies

BACKGROUND: When prescriptions are being processed in pharmacies, ‘rework’ is a phenomenon where an activity occurs that requires the return to a prior procedural step in the process for correction. To date, little is known regarding rework prevalence in community pharmacies or how this might be minimised. AIM: To evaluate the cause and frequency of prescription rework in community pharmacies. METHOD: A list of reworks was designed for community pharmacists to self-record prescription rework instances and causes in their workplace across a two-week period. Community pharmacists in Ireland were recruited via convenience sampling and snowballing. Descriptive statistics were used to assess rework frequency according to the various causes, as well as the pharmacist and pharmacy characteristics. RESULTS: Eight pharmacists participated, recording 325 reworks across 92.9% of the 65 study days (mean 5 reworks/day). The pharmacists’ mean ranged from 1.82 to 15 reworks/day. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians alone or together were involved in 72.3% of reworks. The three most common rework categories were involving labelling errors (22.8%), prepared prescriptions which necessitated opening and repackaging (15.1%), and medication owings to patients (13.9%). CONCLUSION: This study reveals that prescription rework occurs frequently in community pharmacies and has provided an indication of some of the main causes. These findings demonstrate areas where pharmacy staff can address rework and should aid the development of approaches to minimise rework in future – thus decreasing workload and facilitating more time for community pharmacy staff to focus on providing patient care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11096-023-01563-3.