Indicators for drug and therapeutics committees

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Pharmaceutical Policy
• Hospital Management

Background:

• Drug and Therapeutics Committees (DTCs) play a crucial role in hospital medication management.
• There is a need for standardized, validated indicators to assess DTC performance.
• Existing performance measures may lack relevance or accessibility in diverse hospital settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and field-test a set of accessible, useful, and relevant indicators for DTCs in Australia.
• To evaluate candidate indicators based on criteria such as accessibility, relevance, usefulness, clarity, and resource utilization.
• To establish a consensus on a final set of indicators for monitoring DTC performance.

Main Methods:

• Candidate indicators were developed through consultation and data collection.
• A framework of outcome, impact, and process indicators was established.
• Field testing was conducted in various Australian hospitals (teaching, non-teaching, rural, private) over two months.
• A consensus workshop with stakeholders and experts finalized the indicator set based on field test results.

Main Results:

• Thirty-five candidate indicators were tested in 16 hospitals.
• Key performance metrics included response rates, relevance, usefulness, interpretation accuracy, and collection time.
• The most acceptable indicators required minimal data collection or provided data useful for other purposes.
• Following field testing and consensus, 13 indicators were accepted with minor changes, 9 were modified, and 8 were discarded.

Conclusions:

• A set of 22 indicators for DTCs in Australia has been successfully developed and field-tested.
• The developed indicators have been positively received as a first step in monitoring DTC performance.
• Ongoing validation and development are recommended to ensure the continued relevance and usefulness of these indicators.