A multi-site evaluation of clinical pharmacist time, motion, interventions and interruptions

Patient centred clinical pharmacy activities have demonstrated improvements in patient outcomes. There are limited published data on workflow practices of pharmacists to assist with clinical pharmacy service delivery improvement.

To determine the amount of time clinical pharmacists spend each day performing their work tasks, interventions and interruptions. To determine the proportion of time performing clinical tasks and tasks face-to-face with patients.

Trained pharmacy students observed clinical pharmacists and recorded clinical activities using the timer app Clockify™ on a smart device (phone or tablet) at four hospitals over 9 days between 29th July and 8th August 2024. Pharmacy students recorded the number and types of patients seen, interventions and interruption patterns.

A total of 678.3 h of pharmacist activity were recorded. The mean time spent per day per patient type was 25.9 min (discharge patient), 23.5 min (new patient) and 10.3 min (review patient). Pharmacists spent the largest proportion of time (21.9%) on discharge patients followed by review patients (21.6%). Over 80% of pharmacist time was spent performing clinical activities, of which almost 12% was spent face-to-face with patients. Pharmacists were interrupted 34 times per day and performed 67 interventions per 100 patients.

Pharmacists spend over 80% of their work time performing clinical activities for patients, of which almost 12% is spent face-to-face with patients. The largest proportion of time is spent with discharge patients followed by review patients.