title: Early experiences with the multidose drug dispensing system--a matter of trust?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study early experiences with multidose drug dispensing (MDD) among different groups of health personnel.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative study based on focus-group interviews.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary health care, Trondheim, Norway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The importance of trust in the technology and in collaborating partners is actualized in the early implementation of MDD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GPs, home-care nurses, pharmacists, and medical secretaries trusted the new MDD technology. The quality of the GPs' medication records improved. However, health personnel, including the GPs themselves, would not always trust the medication records of the GPs. Checking the multidose bags arriving from the pharmacy was considered unnecessary in the written routines dealing with MDD. However, home-care nurses experienced errors and continued to manually check the bags. Nurses in the home-care service felt a loss of knowledge with regard to the patients' medications and in turn experienced reduced ability to give medical information to patients and to observe the effects of the drugs. The home-care services' routines for drug handling were not always trusted by the other groups of health personnel involved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health personnel faced some challenges during the implementation of the MDD system, but most of them remained confident in the new system. Building trust has to be a process that runs in parallel with the introduction of new technology and the establishment of new routines for improving the quality in handling of medicines and to facilitate better cooperation and communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. liv.j.wekre@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Liv Johanne
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wekre
authors.forename: Line
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Melby
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grimsmo
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D004282:Documentation; D004349:Drug Packaging; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005194:Family Practice; D017144:Focus Groups; D058005:General Practitioners; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008502:Medical Secretaries; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D009664:Norway; D009726:Nurses; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010595:Pharmacists; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations