Activity analysis of decentralized pharmacists in a unit dose dispensing and drug-administration program

The relative amount of time spent by pharmacists on specific activities related to a pharmacy-coordinated drug administration and dispensing program in a 1000-bed tertiary-care teaching hospital was determined. Discrete activities of decentralized pharmacists involved in the program were defined using information from published reports and a short pilot study. Using a work-sampling technique, two pharmacy residents who had been trained to work as decentralized pharmacists performed instantaneous observations of the activities of pharmacists on five patient-care floors over a one-month period. Neither weekend nor night-shift activities were observed. Approximately 26% of a pharmacist's time was spent coordinating drug administration activities, and another 25% was spent providing clinical consultation or drug information services or performing research. The remainder of pharmacists' time was spent in activities related to drug distribution, interprofessional communication, or miscellaneous tasks. A work-sampling method proved useful in quantifying the amount of time associated with pharmacists' activities in a pharmacy-coordinated drug administration program.