Pharmacy practitioners' views on computerized documentation of drug-related problems

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Community pharmacy practitioners play a crucial role in managing nonprescription drug use.
• Accurate documentation of drug-related problems (DRPs) and interventions is essential for quality patient care.
• Computerized systems offer potential benefits for efficient and standardized documentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the practice of computerized documentation of DRPs and pharmacy interventions among community pharmacy practitioners.
• To assess practitioners' attitudes and experiences with a new computerized documentation system.

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire survey was conducted among 376 pharmacy practitioners in 45 Swedish community pharmacies.
• Data were collected after a 10-week period of computerized DRP documentation.
• Weighted multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing documentation rates.

Main Results:

• Practitioners deemed computerized DRP and intervention documentation highly important, easy to learn, and effective in daily practice.
• The system increased practitioners' attentiveness to self-care consumers' drug-related needs and improved counseling quality perception.
• Practitioner interest in documentation significantly impacted documentation rates, outweighing experienced time constraints (p = 0.004).

Conclusions:

• The study supports expanded implementation of computerized DRP and pharmacy intervention documentation.
• High practitioner commitment is crucial for successful adoption and overcoming potential challenges like time constraints.
• Computerized documentation enhances the quality of self-care counseling in community pharmacies.