A drug information service quality assurance audit

In this quality assurance audit, 197 drug information requests received over a 10-day period were evaluated for completeness, legibility, and appropriate documentation according to standards set by the ASHP's Special Interest Group on Drug and Poison Information Practice. Deficiencies in documentation of the caller's telephone number (lacking in 21% of forms), time a response was needed (58%), background information (18%), references searched (16%), and staff review (31%) were noted. Corrective action included emphasis on quality control via improved documentation and daily review of completed consultations by senior staff. Three months later, a reaudit of 240 drug information requests found marked improvement in documentation (information regarding the above-mentioned variables was lacking in 1.7%, 2.5%, 2%, 1.3%, and 3.3%, respectively, of request forms). However, increased documentation resulted in increased response times--30% of questions were not answered the same day as asked, and 12% were not answered in the time frame requested.