Receptionists make key contributions to quality of repeat prescribing

摘要

GP PRACTICE receptionists make important "hidden" contributions to quality and safety for repeat prescribing in primary care. That was the conclusion of researchers who analysed repeat prescribing in four GP practices — the results of which were published online by the BMJ (3 November 2011). The researchers noted that more than half of requests for repeat prescriptions were classed by receptionists as "exceptions", meaning that the drug or dose requested, or the timing of the request, differed from what was expected according to the patient's repeat medicines list on the surgery computer system. In many circumstances, receptionists made judgements on how to deal with these exceptions that required "both explicit and tacit knowledge", they say.