Olufunmilola Abraham

Managing sleep problems using non-prescription medications and the role of community pharmacists: older adults’ perspectives

To examine older adults’ perspectives regarding managing sleep problems through selection and use of non‐prescription sleep aids, and the role of pharmacists.

Acceptability of Health Kiosks Within African American Community Settings: A Pilot Study

Introduction: Health kiosks have been increasingly adopted to provide health-care services to those with limited access. Kiosks have the potential to reach people who may have undiagnosed health conditions or those who are not under regular physician care. Thus far, there is limited research assessing the usefulness of health kiosks in the community. This study aimed to explore the acceptability, usability, usefulness, and overall satisfaction of health kiosks in African American majority community settings. Methods: Two health kiosks were placed in predominantly African American low-income areas in an urban city in Western Pennsylvania. After the kiosk interaction, participants 18 years and older were recruited to complete a survey on their overall kiosk use experience. The technology acceptance model was adapted to develop the survey. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative survey responses were analyzed using content analysis. Results: Seventy-seven percent of the 31 survey respondents were female and 37.8% were ages 60 to 69 years old. Overall, 90% of participants were satisfied with their kiosk experience and 97% found the kiosk useful for health self-management, with 94% stating that they would use the kiosk again. Conclusion: This study showed that health kiosks are accepted among African Americans in community settings such as churches and community centers. Participants found the kiosks easy to use and an overall useful tool to help manage their health. Future studies are needed to provide a better understanding of health kiosk acceptance among minority populations and in community settings.

Human Factors in Pharmacy

Medication errors in the ambulatory setting are common and contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. Given the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation of adopting a systems-based approach to improving medication safety, research has been conducted utilizing human factors and ergonomics conceptual frameworks, approaches, and methods to study pharmacies and pharmacists. This panel will focus on how human factors principles and models have been adapted for contexts where medications are managed. Individual projects address pediatric patients’ medication-related needs, over-the-counter medication safety for older adults, anticoagulation management, automated prescription tracking, and medication safety-related decision making by healthcare professionals. These studies span settings from community pharmacies to inpatient pharmacies to specialty clinics and patients’ homes. By presenting a sample of the growing body of human factors work in pharmacy, this panel will offer unique implications for human factors theory, methods, and application in this important domain.

Errors Related to Outpatient E-Prescribing

Electronic prescribing, commonly referred to as e-prescribing, has been introduced to many outpatient settings to reduce medication errors and facilitate prescription processing. E-prescribing allows prescribers to electronically generate and send e-prescriptions to pharmacies. Federal government requirement for meaningful use of electronic health records has led to significant increase in the number of outpatient settings using e-prescribing in the USA. Although e-prescribing is known to reduce medication errors related to poor handwriting and illegibility issues, it also creates new types of errors. In this chapter, we discuss common e-prescribing errors that occur in outpatient practices and potential solutions to ensure patient safety.