Physicians' review of significant interventions by clinical pharmacists in inpatient care

Clinical pharmacists in this study hospital reported 1027 interventions in patient drug therapy over two time periods of three and two weeks each. When peer-reviewed for clinical significance, 36 of these interventions were deemed significant in terms of saving patients' lives or preserving major organ functions; 983 were judged to improve drug therapy to an acceptable level based on standards of the professional literature (8 recommendations were informational i.e., not clinically significant). These 36 interventions were subjected to an independent, blind review by three practicing physicians who were given the same ranking system for clinical relevance as the one used by the peer reviewers. The physicians independently concurred with the peer reviewers on the two interventions initially ranked as 6 (lifesaving in nature). Of the interventions ranked 5 (preserving major organ functions) by the peer-review group, 53 percent were given a rank of 5 by the physicians. However, the remaining 47 percent were given a rank of 4 (upgrading patient drug therapy to the most appropriate level based on professionally accepted standards). In this era of program evaluation and justification, the process of encouraging other health professionals to review pharmacists' contribution to patient care should not be overlooked.