Creating connections and improving patient outcomes have been just some of the rewards of being involved in the Hawke's Bay DHB clinical pharmacist team, says team leader Anne Denton.
The team won the Band Design House commitment to quality improvement and patient safety award at this year's Hawke's Bay Health Awards, recognition of its contribution to enabling safe and effective medicine use.
After launching a two-year pilot programme in 2011, the team now consists of 10 clinical pharmacists assisting 21 general practices across the region from Wairoa to Central Hawke's Bay.
Mrs Denton said their role was to sit in GP practices and help them prescribe the best, most appropriate medication, reduce medicine-related harm or poor medicine adherence and optimise the management of complex long-term decisions.
They also helped people moving between care environments, such as hospital discharges and admissions into aged care, managing such transitions and reducing errors.