Contracted Drug Information Services: Comparison of Utilization with Local Hospital Pharmacists

Abstract

In recent years, pharmacy management companies have begun to contract with drug information centers to provide centralized services for participating institutions. This study compared the utilization of drug information services by contracting pharmacists with local hospital pharmacists. All drug information questions from contract pharmacists during 1993 to 1995 were compared with those from local hospital pharmacists utilizing the drug information center. A total of 997 and 1,835 questions were received from contract and local pharmacists, respectively, with the types of information requests being similar for pharmacotherapeutic questions and differing (p < 0.001) for requests for product information and a reference or monograph. Complex responses were required more frequently (p < 0.05) for contracting pharmacists (13%) than for local pharmacists (10%) and took longer to complete. Contract pharmacists more frequently received a response by fax or mail than local pharmacists. Provision of drug information services for a contracting group of pharmacists may present different demands for the types of drug information responses than those from local hospital pharmacists.