Emergency Department Pharmacy Services in the United Kingdom: what is their impact on the quality of care?

Pharmacists now work in many UK emergency departments and urgent care centres, in medicines focused roles but also sometimes as designated care practitioners with overall responsibility for patient care. The quality of these services is currently largely unknown e.g. the safety, effectiveness and cost effectiveness. Some very focused evaluation has taken place in other countries, but that has largely been limited to a specific measure rather than systems-based i.e. measurement of multiple outcomes across various quality domains simultaneously.

The aim of the proposed research programme is to apply a newly developed outcomes framework to the measurement of emergency department pharmacy services. Studies will be mixed-methods and outputs will likely inform pharmacy services and emergency care more broadly.