Administrative reports for monitoring pharmacy purchasing

The use of administrative reports in a hospital pharmacy department to monitor communication regarding drug supply problems and to assist pharmacy administration in assessing the performance of its purchasing area is described. The weekly drug supply problems report was developed as a method to communicate problems in the storeroom to other pharmacy areas. The weekly borrow and loan report, which accounts for all borrow and loan transactions, helps determine the proper reorder quantities of drug products borrowed frequently and monitors repayment for loaned items. The inventory assessment report is prepared annually; in this report, drug expenditures for a "market-basket" list of drug products are compared for the current and previous years. To assess the use of nonformulary drugs, a quarterly report of expenditures for nonformulary drugs is compiled. The purchasing pharmacist, who is responsible for inventory control, prepares these reports. When considered in relation to the budget and workload statistics, the reports can be used to assess the performance of the purchasing area. Increased accountability and more orderly operation of the purchasing area has accompanied the use of these reports.