Users' perspectives of hospital pharmacy computer systems

A survey was conducted to determine if user characteristics affected respondents' expectations of computer systems and to identify the most and least desirable features hospital pharmacists want in computer systems. A questionnaire was mailed to 200 hospital pharmacists selected randomly. The survey was designed to gather demographic data, general systems information, and information on system features in 10 major categories. A total of 111 surveys were returned. Of the respondents, 55% had some type of computer system. The leading type of system used by the respondents was a mainframe-shared system. The majority of respondents (87.4%) indicated that they had a "moderate" amount of experience with computer systems. The most commonly preferred hardware was the minicomputer. It appeared that user characteristics did not influence the pharmacists' expectations of computer systems. In ranking the categories, the hospital pharmacists indicated that the i.v. admixture area, inpatient drug distribution, and clinical functions were the most important for computer applications.