Impact of the dial access drug information service on patient outcome.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the impact of a drug information service on patient outcomes.


METHODS
Prospective evaluation of patient-specific drug information requests.


METHODS
Healthcare professional and consumer drug information service located at a college of pharmacy.


METHODS
Consumers and healthcare professionals of the province.


METHODS
Patient-specific questions received by the drug information service were reviewed and evaluated for actual patient outcome, inquirers' opinion of impact of the service with respect to patient outcome, and for objectivity and timeliness of the response. An expert panel determined whether the responses and recommendations given by the service were appropriate, determined what impact the service had on the patient, and assessed the seriousness of the inquiry.


METHODS
Classification of patient outcome by objective and subjective data based on predetermined desired outcomes.


RESULTS
Ninety-eight and 68 patient-specific requests were received from healthcare professionals and consumers, respectively. The panel concluded that 94.9% of the healthcare requests and 98.5% of the consumer requests were answered appropriately and that the majority of the requests involved potentially serious drug-related problems. The panel also determined that 46.8% of the recommendations to healthcare professionals and 41.0% of the recommendations to consumers resulted in positive patient outcomes. The majority of the positive outcomes involved the prevention of a disease or its symptoms (professional section) and the reduction or elimination of symptoms (consumer section).


CONCLUSIONS
The drug information service not only met its objectives of providing drug information in an accurate, objective, and timely manner, but was also able to provide positive patient outcomes.
Melnyk
P S
PS
Dial Access Drug Information Service, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon, Canada. paul.melnyk@usask.ca
Shevchuk
Y M
YM
Remillard
A J
AJ
D003256:Community Participation; D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000592:standards*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010595:Pharmacists; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012525:Saskatchewan; D013689:Telephone; D013997:Time Factors