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Patient and carer experience of obtaining regular prescribed medication for chronic disease in the English National Health Service: a qualitative study

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, May 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (92nd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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23 X users

Citations

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20 Dimensions

Readers on

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102 Mendeley
Title
Patient and carer experience of obtaining regular prescribed medication for chronic disease in the English National Health Service: a qualitative study
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, May 2013
DOI 10.1186/1472-6963-13-192
Pubmed ID
Authors

Patricia M Wilson, Neha Kataria, Elaine McNeilly

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The increasing burden of chronic disease is recognised globally. Within the English National Health Service, patients with chronic disease comprise of half of all consultations in primary care, and 70% of inpatient bed days. The cost of prescribing long-term medications for those with physical chronic diseases is rising and there is a drive to reduce medicine wastage and costs. While current policies in England are focused on the latter, there has been little previous research on patient experience of ordering and obtaining regular medication for their chronic disease. This paper presents findings from England of a qualitative study and survey of patients and their carers' experiences of community and primary care based services for physical chronic diseases. Although not the primary focus of the study, the results highlighted particular issues around service delivery of repeat prescriptions. METHODS: We conducted 21 qualitative in-depth interviews with 30 patients and family carers' in two Primary Care Trusts in England. Participants were receiving community based care for diabetes, respiratory, neurological or complex co-morbidities, and ranged in age from 39-92 years old. We used a broadly inductive approach to enable themes around patient experience to emerge from the data. RESULTS: While the study sought to gain an overview of patient experience, the findings suggested that the processes associated with ordering and obtaining regular medication - the repeat prescription, was most frequently described as a recurring hassle of managing a long-term condition. Issues for patients and carers included multiple journeys to the surgery and pharmacy, lack of synchrony and dissatisfaction with the length of prescriptions. CONCLUSION: Much literature exists around medication waste and cost, which led to encouragement from the NHS in England to reduce dosage units to a 28-day supply. While there has been an acknowledgement that longer supplies may be suitable for people with stable chronic conditions, it appears that there is limited evidence on the impact of shorter length prescriptions on patient and carer experience, adherence and health outcomes. Recent policy documents within England also fail to address possible links between patient experience, adherence and flaws within repeat prescription service delivery.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 23 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 102 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
New Zealand 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 99 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 18 18%
Researcher 17 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 15 15%
Student > Bachelor 10 10%
Student > Postgraduate 7 7%
Other 15 15%
Unknown 20 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 30 29%
Nursing and Health Professions 15 15%
Social Sciences 9 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 6 6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 3%
Other 18 18%
Unknown 21 21%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 18. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 May 2015.
All research outputs
#1,857,841
of 24,010,679 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#660
of 8,080 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#15,686
of 197,996 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#6
of 121 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,010,679 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,080 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 197,996 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 121 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.