Relationship of productivity analysis to departmental cost-accounting systems

Productivity assessment and its relationship to cost-accounting systems (CASs) is described. Hospital pharmacist managers need workload measurement-productivity assessment systems for evaluating their departments' scope of services and their impact on the total cost-quality balance in treating patients. Productivity is measured as the ratio of output (production units) to input (total personnel hours used) during a specified time. "Macro" production units represent a grouping of related tasks that, when combined, identify a service unit (e.g., patient day) or activity (e.g., drug-use review consultation); "micro" production units are derived by weighting macro units on the basis of resource consumption (standard time required). Macro production unit data should reflect both fixed and variable costs and should be easy to obtain. A productivity analysis system may need more than one macro production unit and also some micro production units. Both input and output units should be separated by service category (e.g., distributive, clinical, research) and by personnel category (pharmacist or supportive personnel). ASHP's PharmaTrend workload measurement system fits these criteria and facilitates national and regional comparisons, and data from PharmaTrend reports can be readily incorporated into a CAS. Pharmacy managers can best use workload measurement systems and CASs by observing trends in their ratios and indicator values over time.