Baseline Competency Assessment of Pharmacists Prescribing and Managing Vancomycin Therapy in the Regina Qu'Appelle...

Pharmacists in the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region (RQHR), Saskatchewan, independently dose, monitor, and adjust vancomycin therapy. No framework exists for ongoing competency assessment of pharmacists.

The primary objective was to determine pharmacists' overall level of competency for all components of the vancomycin prescribing procedure. The secondary objectives were to determine competency for individual prescribing phases, to stratify overall competency in relation to pharmacist and patient factors, and to identify the 3 most frequent errors.

A retrospective chart audit was performed of patients who received a prescription for vancomycin between November 1, 2015, and January 31, 2016. Patients were included if they received pharmacist-prescribed vancomycin as an inpatient or outpatient of an RQHR facility. Patients under the care of a pediatrician, those receiving vancomycin for surgical prophylaxis or via any route other than the IV route, and those whose vancomycin was prescribed by a current pharmacy resident were excluded. A rubric was created that assigned a numeric value for the appropriate completion of various procedure criteria.

A total of 326 patients received vancomycin during the study period, of whom 200 met the inclusion criteria, representing 511 discrete episodes of prescribing by 42 pharmacists. The median overall competency rate, for all phases of prescribing, was 100% (interquartile range [IQR] 90.1%-100%). The median competency rates for the empiric therapy and monitoring phases were 94.4% (IQR 88.9%-100%) and 100% (IQR 87.5%-100%), respectively. No statistically significant differences were found in relation to pharmacists' experience or postbaccalaureate education, patients' level of acuity, or timing of prescribing. The competency score was significantly higher among pharmacists prescribing for patients with normal renal function than among those prescribing for patients with reduced renal function (p = 0.008). The 3 most common errors were failure to document risk factors for nephrotoxicity, failure to document requirement to obtain future trough levels, and failure to document that samples for trough levels had been drawn correctly.

During the study period, pharmacists at RQHR showed competency in all phases of vancomycin prescribing using the approved procedure. Documentation of clinical plans and assessments was identified as an area for improvement.