Quality Indicators of Pharmaceutical Care for Integrative Healthcare: A Scoping Review of Indicators Developed Using the Delphi Technique.

Ramzi Shawahna

doi:10.1155/2020/9131850

Abstract

Background Recently, measuring and benchmarking provision of healthcare services has drawn a considerable attention. This scoping review was conducted to identify, describe, and summarize studies in which the Delphi technique was used to develop quality indicators of pharmaceutical care. The study also aimed to identify activities and services that could be used to capture the impact of pharmacist in integrative medicine. Methods Databases were searched from inception to February 2020 using key terms that were combined using Boolean operators. Studies were included if they were relevant to development of quality indicators of pharmaceutical care with regard to medications or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities. Full text of the selected studies was imported into EndNote. Studies were screened and data were extracted into a standard extraction form. Results Data were extracted from 31 studies. Of those, 24 (77.4%) were related to provision of pharmaceutical services relevant to medications and 7 (22.6%) were related to provision of care using CAM modalities. Most of the studies (67.7%) were published in 2010 and beyond. Almost half of the studies (48.4%) originated from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. A total of 42 different activities and services that could be used as quality indicators were identified from the studies included in this review. Activities and services were related to history taking, performing reconciliations, identifying and resolving therapy problems, providing collaborative care, designing care plans, optimal performance, and continuing education. Conclusions Although there is an increasing interest in improving healthcare delivery, quality indicators of pharmaceutical services and those relevant to CAM provision in healthcare facilities adopting the integrated healthcare paradigm are still limited. Future studies are needed to develop validated quality indicators that could be successfully used in measuring and benchmarking quality of services in integrated healthcare facilities.

Highlights

In modern and culturally diverse societies, patients have the opportunity to benefit from different approaches to healthcare. One of these approaches is based on integrating conventional Western medicine with different modalities of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). is approach is known as “integrative medicine” [1, 2]. e concept of integrative medicine is a form of a holistic approach that is often used to cater to the different needs of patients. e concept goes beyond combining conventional medicine with CAM and permits individualizing approaches to care delivery and incorporates the mid, body, spirituality, and a sense of belonging to the community [1,2,3]
Is scoping review was conducted to (a) identify, (b) describe, and (c) summarize different studies in which the Delphi technique was used to develop quality indicators of pharmaceutical care. e study aimed to identify activities and services that could be used to capture the impact of pharmacist in integrative medicine
24 (77.4%) were related to provision of pharmaceutical services relevant to medications and 7 (22.6%) were related to provision of care using CAM modalities. e PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection is shown in Supplementary Figure S1 [32]

Summary

Introduction

In modern and culturally diverse societies, patients have the opportunity to benefit from different approaches to healthcare One of these approaches is based on integrating conventional Western medicine with different modalities of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Studies were included if they were relevant to development of quality indicators of pharmaceutical care with regard to medications or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities. There is an increasing interest in improving healthcare delivery, quality indicators of pharmaceutical services and those relevant to CAM provision in healthcare facilities adopting the integrated healthcare paradigm are still limited. Future studies are needed to develop validated quality indicators that could be successfully used in measuring and benchmarking quality of services in integrated healthcare facilities

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Conclusion