ArticleBMJ open2025
Understanding the implementation of a multidisciplinary intervention using a suite of prescribing safety indicators to improve medication safety in prison healthcare settings: a qualitative study.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Healthcare Practitioner and Other Professionals' Perspectives on Gabapentinoid Misuse and Dependence: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring Medication Safety in Transitions From Prison to Community: A Qualitative Study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Exploring medication safety in prisons: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesPatients residing in prisons are a vulnerable group with more complex health needs and higher prevalence of inappropriate prescribing than the general population. Overcrowding in prisons, inadequate staffing levels, diversion of medication and substance misuse present challenges to prison healthcare. Interventions that use prescribing safety indicators are one way of helping to reduce the risk of harm by identifying patients at risk of potentially hazardous prescribing. This qualitative study aimed to understand the implementation and impact of a suite of seven prescribing safety indicators, specifically developed for use in prison settings, as part of a multi-disciplinary intervention. DESIGN AND
settingSemistructured interviews were conducted with a range of prison healthcare staff across 30 different prison sites in England. In addition, an online survey was made available to all healthcare staff in participating prisons. Data analysis of interview transcripts and free-text survey responses was conducted following a thematic approach and informed by normalisation process theory.
participantsInterviews were conducted with 9 prison healthcare staff and 40 completed the survey, with 18 staff providing free-text responses.
resultsThree themes were interpreted from the data: bringing people together and establishing individual and collective roles that facilitated implementation of the intervention; developing new tasks, work processes and practices to make the intervention work in everyday practice; and seeing the benefits and value of the intervention and new work processes within the context of prison healthcare provision.
conclusionsNew work processes and practices were instigated in order to implement the intervention, often fitting into existing medication safety practices, building on other prescribing work and creating learning across the team. While we found that prison staff reported challenges to implementation, similar interventions may be used for prescribing safety in prison settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.