Analysis of drug information questions on a decentralized pharmacy service unit.
The pharmaceutical services at Rhode Island Hospital integrate the decentralized distribution role of the pharmacist with the provision of patient-specific drug information. This service is backed up by a Drug Information Center (DIC). A study to analyze the inquiries addressed to pharmacists assigned to a decentralized unit (PSU) was conducted over a 30-day period. The survey tabulated what kind of requests were made, if they could be answered with the information available on the patient care unit, and what action was taken as a result of the information provided. When the requests were categorized according to the type of information, the PSUs and the DICs top three categories were the same. Only 3.8% of the requests for information on the PSU could not be answered using the references available on the unit. Fifty one per cent of the requests received by the PSU were acted upon by the inquirer exactly according to the information provided by the pharmacist.
D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital; D012237:Rhode Island