Nursing Homes

Care Homes and Nursing Homes Services:

At Five Ways Pharmacy we are keen to help you provide the residents of your Care/Nursing Home with the highest level of pharmaceutical care and support available. Our dedicated pharmacy team can provide you with a personal service tailored to your preferences and requirements. We hope that you will read further on and that you will benefit from the unique medicines management service that we have to offer you.

Efficient Prescription Order and Collection Process

How it works:

We understand that it can be very time consuming liaising with GP surgeries to order all of the prescription items required for each resident. We have therefore put in place a robust system to handle all of this on your behalf. All we ask you to do is mark off the prescription items that you require for each resident on an extra MAR sheet that we will send you. We normally request this order from you two weeks before we are required to deliver the medication out to you.

We will then order a prescription for these items from the relevant GP surgery. Once the prescription has been collected by our drivers we will check that all the items that were marked off on the MAR sheet by the Care/Nursing Home staff have actually been prescribed. If there are any missing items we will then contact the GP surgery and request these items on your behalf. We have a very close working relationship with many of the local GP practices and can liaise with them efficiently to ensure that all prescription discrepancies are dealt with quickly and effectively.

Once we are satisfied that all the prescriptions are accurate and correct we will proceed to dispense the medication ready for delivery the following week.

Medication Trays Dispensed

We dispense all regular repeat medication into hygienic disposable Monitored Dosage System Trays (MDS). These trays help to ensure that the residents take the correct medication at the right time of day. We supply weekly trays to ensure that any mid-cycle changes can be accommodated and actioned quickly and efficiently. We also supply computer generated MAR charts to record accurate medicine administration and thus provide a paper audit trail of the medicines that have been given to each resident.

Secure Delivery

We employ our own dedicated drivers that will deliver all medication direct to your door. Our secure medication delivery process offers an efficient service that you can rely upon.

All our delivery services are governed by robust Standard Operating Procedures to ensure safe delivery of all medication. Please note that all deliveries must be checked in and signed for, upon receipt by the person in charge of medicines management within the Care /Nursing Home.

Audits, Training and Support

We offer training and support for all the staff that are involved in medicines management within the Care/Nursing Home. Our registered pharmacist has a specialist interest in Care/ Nursing Home medicines management and will conduct a quarterly audit to assist you with preparation for visits from CQC. We can help to ensure compliance with all legal and good practice aspects of CQC Outcome 9 are achieved i.e. correct medicines storage, handling, administration and waste.

Our pharmacist will also conduct one to one annual medication reviews with your residents to help enhance their understanding of the prescribed medication regimen and the conditions being treated. This service allows the pharmacist to provide valuable advice and support and answer any queries that the residents may have, in the comfort of their own home environment.

Urgent Medication Delivered the Same Day

We understand the importance and urgency of Acute medication e.g. Antibiotics and Palliative Care / End Of Life medicines. We keep a vast range of such medicines in stock because we understand that they are often required promptly. We will strive to deliver such requests the same day with a separate MAR Sheet.

Collection of Unused Medication for Disposal

We are committed to reducing NHS medication wastage. We will therefore only send out ‘When Required’ medication when requested by the Care/Nursing Home staff. We understand that from time to time you will have unused or date expired medicines which will require safe disposal. We supply you with the correct short-term storage bins to safely segregate this medication ready for disposal. We provide a unique service whereby our Waste Management Contractors have an agreement with us to collect this medication directly from your site for disposal at NO extra cost to you. They will also supply you with the correct Waste Transfer Note for your records. Most pharmacies choose not to offer a waste collection service from Care and Nursing Homes as they do not have the requisite licences in place; however we understand this is an important aspect of overall medicines management within the Care/Nursing Home and choose to finance this service ourselves in order to provide a bespoke service for you.

Services Available for Small (less than 5 beds) and Large Homes (more than 120 beds)

We supply Care Homes of all sizes and the types of residents in each home tends to vary from the young to the elderly and from residents living in Assisted Living Centre’s to those suffering from Dementia or Learning Disabilities requiring 24 hour care.

We tailor our service to the needs of the individual Care/Nursing Home and we are responsive to your requirements. We are committed to providing you with a high quality service because we genuinely care about your needs and the individual needs of your residents.

Contact us today – we are always happy to help.