Eclair Case Study

Community Pharmacy

Shared care in thecommunity

www.sysmex.co.nz

Community Pharmacy and Shared Care
Community pharmacies interact with patients
constantly. Dispensing medications is more than a one
way process. Many medications require monitoring oflab results, drug interaction checks, gauging patient
symptoms and wellness factors.
While pharmacy information systems provide valuablemeans to manage medication dispensing, they are anisland in terms of the bigger patient picture as they do
not contain patient information from other healthcare
providers.

BackgroundIn the Auckland and Northland region, over 3 million
patient records are stored in the CareConnect TestSafe
database which has evolved over the last decade. The
database is the Sysmex Eclair clinical data repository(CDR).
The Eclair CDR includes laboratory, radiology andother diagnostic results, discharge summaries,eReferrals, clinical letters, medications and other
patient documentation drawn from DHB facilities andcommunity laboratories across the region1.
Since 2011, dispensing records from community
pharmacies have been added to the TestSafe databaseand nearly 400 community pharmacies across the region
send dispensing data to TestSafe2. There are now over 118
million individual dispensing records in the system3.
Community pharmacists have secure access to TestSafe
so they can see what medications a patient has alreadybeen dispensed from other pharmacies in the region,
as well as access relevant lab test results and hospitaldischarge summaries (including hospital medicationlists) as needed for patient management.

The Eclair CDR TestSafe holds
over 3 million patient records
which include over 118 million
dispensing records.

2 | Community Pharmacy

Shared CareTo facilitate shared care in the community, pharmacists
play a key role in ensuring that patients are on thecorrect meds and dosage, and are not at risk of druginteractions. Being able to see what has already beendispensed to a patient from other pharmacies assists
with this.
Grey Lynn pharmacist Sunil Kumar says that TestSafe
helps him to ensure accuracy and patient safety.
“We regularly use TestSafe to check the accuracy ofprescriptions against previously dispensed meds. By
doing this we have had occasions where we have picked
up on incorrect dosages and on medications that havebeen unintentionally missed from a prescription.”
Pharmacists can also proactively review relevant
lab test results. “Being able to see lab results at thepoint of dispensing is invaluable,” says Mr Kumar, “forexample, fluctuations in the HbA1c level can provide
an indication of patient compliance when they aretaking metformin. We can remind the patient aboutcompliance if we have any concerns.”
Further along the care path, if a patient is admitted tohospital, secondary care healthcare providers in theAuckland region use the same shared database. They
too, are able to see a complete summary of dispensed
medications from community pharmacies, saving
time chasing dispensing records and enabling themto establish the correct meds and dosage as soon as
possible post-admission.
Another pharamcist who works with Mr Kumar, PriscillaPark, reveals that prior to medication information being
included in the TestSafe system she would frequently
receive calls from the hospital enquiring about apatient’s medication. “It can be a time-consuming
process to look up a patient’s history and then repeat
all this information over the phone to the hospital
pharmacist. Now that medication information has been
included in the TestSafe database, hospitals can see
this for themselves, and the number of calls we receive
has dropped dramatically. Hospitals now only call us
occasionally if they need to confirm something.”

Case Study“Being able to see lab results in Eclair at the point of dispensing is
helpful, for example fluctuations in the HbA1c level can provide anindication of patient compliance when they are taking metformin.”Sunil Kumar - Grey Lynn Pharmacy

TestSafe also includes clinical documents, such asdischarge summaries, clinic letters and surgicaldocuments from the region’s secondary care facilities.
When patients are discharged from hospital, Mr Kumar
and Ms Park both agreed that it is beneficial to be able
to access the discharge summary report in TestSafe.
“We use the discharge summary to reconcile meds on
the patient’s discharge prescription.”

Patient Confidentiality
The TestSafe system includes an opt-off option,so patients can disallow their records from being
shared with other health practitioners. In the case of
medication information, a notice alerting patients that
their prescription information will be sent to TestSafe ison the bottom of their pharmacy receipt. There are also
instructions on how to opt out of the process.
TestSafe maintains a full audit trail of access. Where apractitioner accesses the records of someone who is

not their regular patient, they are required to enter alegitimate reason. Mr Kumar states that on occasion
he has had calls from TestSafe checking why he hasaccessed a particular patient record. In each case he has
had a legitimate reason, however, he says it’s reassuring
to know that the audit process is so thorough.

“Now that medication
information has been includedin the TestSafe database,hospitals can see this forthemselves, and the number ofcalls we receive has dropped
dramatically.”
Priscilla Parks - Grey Lynn Pharmacy

Community Pharmacy | 3

1

http://www.careconnect.co.nz/testsafe/

2

https://www.sysmex.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Regional_CDR_Case_Study_V3_Web1.pdf

3Susan Hedges, healthAlliance; 2016 Sysmex User Group presentation, “The Northern Region’s Eclair CDR Experience - TestSafe Customer Case Study”

Sysmex Australia Pty Ltd

info@sysmex.com.au | www.sysmex.com.au

Sysmex New Zealand Limited

info@sysmex.co.nz | www.sysmex.co.nz© 2018 Sysmex Corporation. All rights reserved.
**Eclair is not a medical device as it does not have a therapeutic purpose.**