title: Do remote community telepharmacies have higher medication error rates than traditional community pharmacies? Evidence from the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the differences in medication dispensing errors between remote telepharmacy sites (pharmacist not physically present) and standard community pharmacy sites (pharmacist physically present and no telepharmacy technology; comparison group).
  
  
  METHODS
  Pilot, cross-sectional, comparison study.
  
  
  METHODS
  North Dakota from January 2005 to September 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pharmacy staff at 14 remote telepharmacy sites and 8 comparison community pharmacies.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Pharmacy Quality Commitment (PQC) reporting system was incorporated into the North Dakota Telepharmacy Project. A session was conducted to train pharmacists and technicians on use of the PQC system. A quality-related event (QRE) was defined as either a near miss (i.e., mistake caught before reaching patient; pharmacy discovery), or an error (i.e., mistake discovered after patient received medication; patient discovery).
  
  
  METHODS
  QREs for prescriptions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During a 45-month period, the remote telepharmacy group reported 47,078 prescriptions and 631 QREs compared with 123,346 prescriptions and 1,002 QREs in the standard pharmacy group. Results for near misses (pharmacy discovery) and errors (patient discovery) for the remote and comparison sites were 553 and 887 and 78 and 125, respectively. Percentage of "where the mistake was caught" (i.e., pharmacist check) for the remote and comparison sites were 58% and 69%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study reported a lower overall rate (1.0%) and a slight difference in medication dispensing error rates between remote telepharmacy sites (1.3%) and comparison sites (0.8%). Both rates are comparable with nationally reported levels (1.7% error rate for 50 pharmacies).
authors: College of Pharmacy, North Dakota State University, Fargo, USA. daniel.friesner@ndsu.edu
authors: Daniel L
authors: DL
authors: Friesner
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Scott
authors: Ann M
authors: AM
authors: Rathke
authors: Charles D
authors: CD
authors: Peterson
authors: Howard C
authors: HC
authors: Anderson
mesh_terms: D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009658:North Dakota; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D010596:Pharmacy Technicians / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*