Analysis of information provided by clinical pharmacists

Data were collected to characterize the interactions between clinical pharmacists and other health professionals in a university hospital with decentralized pharmaceutical services. A self-report data collection form was developed. Six faculty pharmacists participated in the study. Each pharmacist collected data by recording all clinical interactions that occurred in his normal activities for a one-month period. the pharmacists' practice sites were inpatient internal medicine, inpatient pediatrics (two pharmacists), family practice clinic, pediatric clinic, and inpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation. A computer program was written to provide correlation data among the locations, contents, and participants of the interactions. Data were collected on the time required for a literature search and on the outcomes of the interactions. Four hundred ninety-nine interactions were documented. Work rounds were the most common location for these interactions, and the housestaff physicians were the most frequent participants. Patients' dosage schedule was the most common topic discussed (17%). Pharmacokinetics accounted for only 6% of the communications; drug interactions, only 3%. Ninety-six percent of the pharmacists' recommendations were adopted within 24 hours. More than half of the interactions (56%) required no literature search by the pharmacists and nearly half (249) required less than one minute of pharmacist time.