Abstract
This study describes a hospital pharmacy's initiative in tracking the progress of its clinical quality-improvement programs. Using first a manual system and then an online program for tracking pharmacy consultations, information on pharmacy performance quality was collected for a two-year period. Pharmacy consultations increased from 43 in February 1999 to 266 in December 1999, peaking at 402 in August 2000. Consultations increased during each month of the year 2000 compared with the corresponding month of 1999. The majority (33%) of consultations were order clarifications, followed by drug information consults (23%), patient care encounters (13%), pharmacokinetic consults (8%), therapeutic consults (7%), renally excreted drug monitoring (4%), and consultations involving duplicate unnecessary therapy, formulary conversion, and interactions/compatability (all at 3%). Antibiotic regimen change (2%) and allergy/disease state contraindication (1%) were the least frequent types of consultations. The online tracking system provided more detail than the manual tracking system. This detail can be used to target goals and demonstrate pharmacy progress to hospital committees and accreditation agencies.
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