P126 Introduction of an online hepatology prescription request form and virtual prescribing clinic leads to improvements in efficiency and patient satisfaction

<h3></h3> Accessing ‘hospital-only’ repeat prescriptions can be frustrating for patients and time-consuming for staff. Historically, patients telephoned medication requests to secretaries and nurse specialists as required; prescriptions were written ad hoc and delivered to pharmacy individually where each underwent a standard dispensing phone call. Delays from requesting to supply led to inadvertent breaks in treatment and unintentional non-compliance. We sought to digitally streamline the process using a patient accessible online Microsoft form and dedicated twice-weekly ‘prescribing clinics’. Patients are given cards with a QR code for the form in clinic and with hospital-only medication dispensing. Googling the request form is also encouraged, using simple terms e.g. ‘Liver-Medications-Nottingham’, or accessing via the Hepatology pages of the Trust website. Contents of the request form include concomitant medication, allergies and requirements for arranging deliveries, reducing the workload for pharmacy. Completed forms are downloaded twice weekly for a dedicated virtual prescribing clinic run by prescribing pharmacists &amp; nurse specialists, enabling bulk delivery of prescriptions to pharmacy with all required dispensing information. Since launch in mid-November 2024, 349 digital prescription requests have been received from 291 patients requesting 367 medications. Specialist only immunosuppressants (27%) and anti-viral medications (66%) dominate the demand; however, requests are broad including newly started medications &amp; those GPs have declined to prescribe (table 1). Patient feedback was requested through a text questionnaire. We estimate ~18 h/month of bypassed admin &amp; specialist nursing time through this process (20 mins/request). An audit of pharmacy practice (127 prescriptions) demonstrated a marked reduction in phone calls required – just 12% required an additional phone call prior to delivery. This shows a saving of ~4h/month of pharmacy calls (5 mins/call). Patient feedback (n= 23) was overwhelmingly positive; 87% declared they intend to continue using this route of access for hospital only prescriptions. The majority of survey responders described the process as fast or very fast (56%), and easy or very easy to complete (74%). We have demonstrated, through a simple online form, demonstrable efficiencies in staff workload, while facilitating improved quality of care through rapid access to liver medications.