Currently, instituting a second pharmacy check of PTTAs is not warranted. 1. Dodds LJ.

Pharmacist contributions to ensuring safe and accurate transfer of written medicines-related discharge information: lessons from a collaborative audit GSK1120212 in vivo and service evaluation involving 45 hospitals in England. Eur J Hosp Pharm Published Online First: 10 February 2014. doi:10.1136/ejhpharm-2013-000418 K. Medlinskiene Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Hospitals, Hull, UK HDS is the main communication tool between hospital and general practitioners. Evaluate turnaround time for HDS and to what extent pharmacist input was required. The average turnaround time for HDS in the pharmacy was 2 h 22 min and 75% of HDS required pharmacist input. The hospital discharge summary

GDC941 (HDS) is the main method of communicating patient’s diagnostic findings, hospital management, and arrangements for post-discharge follow up to general practitioners. HDS are additionally checked by hospital pharmacists if discharge medication supply is required. It is not unusual to receive complaints from patients about long waiting times for discharge medication. The study aimed to evaluate average time of a HDS journey and extent to which pharmacist input was required. The data collection was performed during one week in November 2013 at one of three acute NHS Trust sites. All HDS received in the pharmacy had forms attached for time recordings (time a HDS was created, reached the pharmacy,

turnaround time in the pharmacy). Data from HDS with completed time recordings was retrospectively analysed with Microsoft Excel to evaluate if pharmacist input was required. Any interventions, contributions and adjustments to HDS e.g. dose changes, additional instructions, completion of stopped medication box, completion of allergy status, were classed as pharmacist input. Ethical approval was not required. A total of 196 HDS had completed forms which represented 62% (314) of all HDS received that week Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II by the pharmacy. The average time for one HDS to reach the pharmacy once it had been created was 1 h 4 min. Only 5% (10) HDS were in the pharmacy 24 h prior discharge as per trust policy.1 The average turnaround time for a HDS was 2 h 22 min, which was considerably lower on the weekend (1 h 18 min). Each HDS was collected or delivered to the ward on average within 33 min. The overall average time of HDS journey was 3 h 59 min. The majority of HDS, 75% (147), required pharmacist input. Pharmacist input was achieved by using information on inpatient drug cards, contacting ward (nurse or doctor), or both (Table 1). Table 1 Sources used for pharmacists input Drug card 70% (103) Contacting ward (doctor or nurse) 2% (3) Both 28% (44) HDS are mostly written by junior doctors and errors are often associated with this junior status.