Capturing Value: How Health-System Specialty Pharmacies Define and Document Pharmacist Interventions.

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Standardized pharmacist intervention practices and documentation are needed in health-system specialty pharmacies to clarify the pharmacist's role and value.
• Current practices vary significantly, impacting the consistent understanding and utilization of pharmacist interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe current intervention practices within health-system specialty pharmacies.
• To evaluate the definition, documentation, and utilization of pharmacist interventions across different institutions.

Main Methods:

• A survey was developed and distributed to health-system specialty pharmacy group email lists.
• The survey assessed the classification of interventions (clinical vs. non-clinical), performers, documentation methods, data elements, and data usage.
• Twenty-four institutions responded to the survey.

Main Results:

• Pharmacists performed interventions at 100% of sites, primarily documented in electronic health records (92%).
• Medication management, adverse drug events, and education were commonly viewed as clinical interventions, while health maintenance and care coordination were less so.
• Intervention data were mainly collected for accreditation (96%) and quality auditing (88%), with no data shared directly with patients.

Conclusions:

• Significant alignment and variance exist in the definition and documentation of pharmacist interventions among health-system specialty pharmacies.
• Further standardization efforts are necessary to enhance the recognition and impact of pharmacist interventions in specialty pharmacy settings.