Time and cost requirements for decentralized pharmacist activities.

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Hospital Pharmacy
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• Decentralized pharmacy services are integral to patient care.
• Understanding the time and cost of these services is crucial for efficient hospital management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define activities and time standards for decentralized pharmacists.
• To determine patient-type variations in pharmacist time and costs.
• To compare service costs with reimbursement for clinical pharmacy.

Main Methods:

• Studied a 548-bed university hospital in 1987-1988.
• Collected data on pharmacist activities across seven patient categories.
• Established time standards and calculated costs per patient day.

Main Results:

• Pharmacist time varied significantly by patient acuity (2.3 to 20.8 hours/day).
• Clinical activities consumed ~50% of pharmacist time across all categories.
• Costs for clinical services were lowest for low-intensity care and highest for intensive care.

Conclusions:

• Decentralized pharmacist time and costs are patient-dependent.
• Clinical pharmacy services were profitable during the study period.
• Pharmacy workload analysis systems are valuable for hospital management.