An evaluation of clinical services: a case study

The success of evaluation research rests largely in its usefulness. If the sponsors of an evaluation find the data meaningful, then the limitations that the problems of evaluation invariably impose on a study's scientific origin should not be given undue emphasis. In the case of MHMC, the evaluation results were used for program planning in the hospital and for explicating the content of testimony to the California legislature about pharmacy practice in the state. Of course, it would be unthinkable to advocate weak studies and unreliable data. The evaluator must assume the responsibility of determining if and when the balance between what can be done well is tipped in favor of unsound methods. The evaluator is also responsible for judging just how important the data from the study are. How many people will be affected? Are other data available to illuminate or be used with the evaluation?. As clinical pharmacy becomes more concerned with program evaluation, it will need to address ethical and political questions like these at the same time that it answers methodological ones.