A retrospective observational study of on-call hospital pharmacist activities in a rural setting in Aotearoa New Zealand.

AIM: There is a paucity of published information on pharmacist on-call activities. Rural healthcare settings have been largely overlooked in previous research, which to date focusses on international urban tertiary hospitals. This study's aim is to investigate the types of enquiries, frequency of callbacks, and activities of on-call pharmacists at Timaru Hospital, a rural secondary hospital in Aotearoa New Zealand.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective analysis of data entered by on-call pharmacists at Timaru Hospital between January 2021 and December 2023. Data were classified according to enquiry classification, reason for callback, call topic, caller identity, pharmacist level of experience, high-risk APINCH and patient safety.

RESULTS

There were 669 enquiries over the 3-year period, at a rate of one phone enquiry every 1.6 days, and 388 (58%) required a callback. Of the 669 enquiries, 140 (21%) related to high-risk medicines coded to APINCH and 46 (7%) related to patient safety. The on-call service cost approximately NZ$215,150 to NZ$265,850 for the 3 years.

CONCLUSION

Rural hospital on-call pharmacists require general specialist knowledge and broad expertise to be able to respond to the diversity of enquiries relating to medicines information and medication dosing. The results demonstrate the importance and impact of rural hospital pharmacist on-call activities, and the need for improved training and optimised after-hours medicine management.