Background
There are various legal and administrative requirements required in New Zealand prescriptions. New Zealand residents receive subsidized medicines which varies depending on their financial status (1). The New Zealand pharmacy profession actively encourages and supports members of the profession to provide patient counseling and pharmaceutical services. However, bureaucratic interventions take up a large proportion of pharmacists' time during the dispensing process and the time required to accurately record interventions, both administrative and clinical, is perceived as a barrier to providing a professional service. It has been reported that pharmacist interventions can reduce costs to patients (3) and contribute to rational drug use. (4) The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and type of prescription interventions made by community pharmacists in their contribution to rational use of medicines.

Methods
The study was undertaken at two community pharmacies in Auckland, New Zealand. Processed prescriptions for a one-month period in 2005 were analysed and the following annotations/changes were documented:
Brand names, doses, dose frequency, dosage form, items non-dispensed, phone prescription items, special authority follow up, invalid coding of patient age or subsidy status, and legal requirements such as date and prescriber signature. Demographic data included patient year of birth, age group, government subsidy status and exemption categories for co-payments (X4,X1). Interventions were then classified into the six broad categories according to guidelines of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand Inc., and the average time taken for a sample of the interventions was determined.

Results
Preliminary results from the first phase of the study showed 257 interventions over a 3-week period. Most of the interventions saved the patient money in the cost of the prescription (47.9%) while 27.2% were of a bureaucratic nature. There were 9.7% of interventions that optimized therapy and 8.9% where instructions were clarified, while 4.3% prevented moderate danger to the patient and 1.9% (n=5) prevented a life-threatening adverse event.

Conclusion
Pharmacists play a role in assisting patients to save money on the cost of medicines. Many of the interventions made by community pharmacists in New Zealand are of a bureaucratic nature, but pharmacists can make a significant contribution to improved patient health outcomes.