[Not Available]

Although the concept of clinical pharmacy was originally developed some time ago, in the 1960s, there is a wide variety of programs in existence, as well as great disparity between programs where the presence of a pharmacist is provided in outpatient and inpatient settings.

To test a method for upgrading pharmaceutical care areas in a hospital setting.

This descriptive study was conducted at the Sainte-Justine university health centre, a 500-bed mother-and-child hospital. The pharmaceutical care area that was used to exemplify the upgrading method was pediatric hematology-oncology. A 3-step method was used: review of the scientific literature, creation of a profile of the targeted area, and upgrading of the practice level according to the pre- and post-upgrading profile of the pharmaceutical activities in the area.

A total of 108 articles were identified in a search of the PubMed database, of which 22 were retained. After a complementary manual search, a total of 36 articles were evaluated. The articles retained included 3 guidelines, 11 development studies, 1 review of scientific literature, 6 pre- and post-intervention studies, and 15 quasi-experimental studies. Although patients in the pediatric hematology-oncology area account for only 5% of admissions to this hospital, the cases are highly complex, in terms of both the codification of the care phase and the potential for pharmaceutical intervention per admission.

There are few data to illustrate a method for upgrading practice in a pharmaceutical care area. This study tested a method for upgrading pharmaceutical care in a pediatric hematology-oncology service, with a review of the scientific literature, a profile of the area, and the pharmacists' pre- and post-upgrading job description in this area. [Publisher's translation].