Documenting drug information questions using software for poison information documentation

Current and alternative approaches to documenting drug information (DI) questions at DI centers in the United States and features of a software program used for documenting poison information are described.

A survey was distributed through an Internet listserver for DI specialists in institutional or academic practices. The survey requested information regarding the use of electronic databases to document DI inquiries and the type of databases used. Documented DI questions during a nine-month period using Visual Dotlab (Visual Dotlab Enterprises, Fresno, CA) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) DI center were analyzed to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the software for documenting DI questions.

Thirty-three DI centers responded to the survey, and 22 (67%) used electronic databases for question documentation. Of these, 15 (68%) were created with Microsoft Office Access (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA). At the UPMC DI center, 841 DI questions were documented using Visual Dotlab. Questions from pharmacists, nurses, and physicians accounted for 654 (78%) of entries. Drug-drug interactions (12%) and dosage recommendations (12%) were the most common types of questions received. On average, DI specialists spent 46 minutes per response, which required an average of 1.7 follow-up calls per inquiry. Quality assurance was performed on 98% of questions documented.

Visual Dotlab is not well-known and is currently not used widely by DI centers. However, it includes features that may help DI centers document and retrieve DI questions efficiently and comprehensively.