Evaluating the Training, Responsibilities, and Practices of P&T Committee Members and Nonmember Contributors

Pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees are responsible for managing drug formularies in numerous health care settings. Although pharmacy practice and health care organizations provide general recommendations of responsibilities and skills for members and nonmember contributors of P&T committees, the study investigators hypothesized that there is diversity in the training, responsibilities, and practices of these members and contributors.

To describe the training, responsibilities, and practices of members and nonmember contributors of P&T committees in a variety of health care settings, using an online survey.

In December 2015, an online survey was delivered to clinicians who were considered likely to be involved in P&T committee service from hospitals ranked by U.S. News & World Report and a convenience sample of clinicians practicing in managed care settings. The survey instrument was designed to assess various domains and perceptions of P&T committee processes.

Sixty-nine respondents representing various health care delivery settings in the United States were eligible for and completed the survey. The majority of the respondents were pharmacists (94.2%), and 72.5% of the respondents were P&T committee members. The remainder of the respondents were nonmember P&T committee contributors. Approximately 60% of the respondents had served in P&T committee roles for ≥ 10 years. Specialized postgraduate training incorporating literature evaluation and formulary management was possessed by 21.7% and 17.4% of the respondents, respectively; however, most of the respondents received on-the-job training. Approximately half of the respondents were responsible for preparation of P&T committee documents, and 58% reported that nonmember contributors typically write and prepare these documents. Skill in literature evaluation was the most important criterion in selecting authors of P&T committee documents, while 10.1% of the respondents indicated that their committees did not use any criteria for author selection. When authoring documents, primary literature was routinely consulted by 89.5% of the respondents. Most of the respondents (84.1%) used an organization-specific document template, while 5.8% of the respondents indicated that they prepared documents with no defined process. The most highly ranked factor that could have a perceived beneficial effect on P&T committee functions were guidelines on the authoring and reviewing of P&T committee documents.

The survey of P&T committee members and nonmember contributors used in this study identified current training, responsibilities, and practices that can inform recommendations for standards in these domains. Findings suggest opportunities for improvement in achieving best practice recommendations to ensure evidence-based decision making by P&T committees.

No outside funding supported this study. At the time of this study, Kelly was employed by Global Account Management Group (GAMG), which provides consulting services to the hospital and health services industry. As an employee of GAMG, Kelly has served on various advisory boards. All fees for consulting work were paid to GAMG and were primarily related to training or the federal market (e.g., Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs) and have no association with this study. Rodriguez and Moody report no conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to study concept and design. Rodriguez took the lead in data collection, assisted by the other authors. Data interpretation was performed by Rodriguez, along with Kelly and Moody. The manuscript was written and revised primarily by Rodriguez, along with the other authors.