Browsing by Subject "potilaskeskeisyys"

In a pharmacotherapy process prescriber, provider, administrator and evaluator of the effects of medication cooperate in a coordinated way to ensure optimum outcomes of the patient's medications. This requires that all professionals involved in the pharmacotherapy process know their functions and responsibilities in an interprofessional team. No previous studies have explored legislative facilitators and barriers that have impact on the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process even though interprofessional collaboration for assuring safe and effective pharmacotherapy is one of the main objectives of Medicines Policy 2020 in Finland (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2011). The aim of this study was to examine how legislation prevents or facilitates the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process. The data consisted acts, decrees, regulations and directives concerning pharmacotherapy process in the healthcare. Changes in the Finnish legislation from 1990 until present were studied, taking also into account the European Union legislation since 1995 when Finland became a member. Research method was qualitative content analysis. A modified form of the causal diagram of the impact of law and legal practices on public health system performance by Burris et al (2012) was used as a theoretical framework. Interprofessional collaboration applicable to pharmacotherapy process has been taken into account in the main enactments. These enactments concern rights and duties of healthcare professional, patient’s rights, resources required in healthcare, communication and information transfer, and pharmacotherapy process. Enactments that complicate the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process relate especially to communicational barriers. Facilitating enactments include guidelines ensuring coordinated clinical practice for effective and safe medication use and improved communication, collaboration and patient-centeredness as well as accessibility of cross-border healthcare. A trend was observed that the legislation enacted on the 21st Century put more emphasis on interprofessional collaboration, development of technology and mobility of citizens. According to this study there are more facilitators than barriers for interprofessional pharmacotherapy process. Recent enactments even emphasize more interprofessional cooperation in health care than did those enacted before the 21st Century. Still, enactments are general: they should be made more detailed to give a better understanding of interprofessional cooperation, also related to the pharmacotherapy process for safe, effective and evidence-based medication use.