Use of generic screening criteria for clinical interventions that link prescribing to credentialing

Current JCAHO standards require hospitals to link the use of drugs to prescriber credentialling. The pharmacy service at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Iowa City, Iowa, has developed a prescriber-specific program that documents clinical interventions and links that information to physician credentialling through the Pharmacist Intervention Report and associated quality assurance (QA) program. A severity index level was also developed to rate the significance of the interventions. The Pharmacist Intervention Report is used by all medical departments in their respective QA programs.