STARZ-DRP: A Step-by-step Approach for Pharmacy Triage Services
Abstract
This article highlights the importance of structured and systematic processes in triaging patients with minor illnesses. The main aim is to describe a model or protocol for organizing a community pharmacist’s knowledge in a manner that allows him/her to begin identifying the actual and potential drug-related problems (DRPs). We consulted standard reference textbooks and key pharmacy journals looking for common mnemonics which has been promoted as a decision aids for the supply of non-prescription medicines. Our focus was to examine each method in terms of the collecting relevant information with respect to detection of DRPs associated with self-medicating patients. The positives and negatives attributes of each method were assessed. We noticed that each of the mnemonics examine were incomplete in some area. Even for an established and popular aide-memoire, WWHAM, which is an easily remembered mnemonic to obtain a general picture of the patient’s presenting compliant does not provides adequate information for triage and recognize patient-specific medication related problems. Although other mnemonics are more comprehensive than WWHAM, they are still limited. Moreover, by no means these methods were universally use and apply in the community pharmacy practice. Alternatively, the proposed approach provides a platform for triaging a self-medication patient as well as identifying DRPs for collaborating with other health care professionals. Therefore, the STARZ-DRP is an alternative approach for conducting self-care consultation. In depth study is needed to determinate whether it is more effective than other methods for pharmacy triage service when studied in a controlled, systematic manner.