Community pharmacy managers' perception of computerized drug-drug interaction alerts.
OBJECTIVE
To examine community pharmacists' attitudes toward computerized drug-drug interaction (DDI) alerts and identify factors associated with more favorable perceptions of these alerts.


METHODS
Cross-sectional postal survey.


METHODS
18 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States.


METHODS
3000 community pharmacy managers.


METHODS
34-item survey instrument designed to collect data about the pharmacy including demographics, workload issues, handling of DDIs, and pharmacists' attitudes toward computerized DDI alerts.


METHODS
Responses to items concerning community pharmacy managers' attitudes toward DDI alerts and factors associated with more favorable attitudes toward these alerts.


RESULTS
A total of 736 usable surveys were returned (25.3% response rate). Pharmacy managers generally disagreed that DDI alerts were a waste of time (mean +/- SD, 2.1 +/- 1.1 on a scale of 1, strongly disagree, to 6, strongly agree). However, they were not completely confident that their computer systems provided them with meaningful DDI alerts (mean +/- SD, 4.5 +/- 1.2). They were confident in their ability to identify DDIs (mean +/- SD, 4.9 +/- 0.9) and discuss DDIs with physicians (mean +/- SD, 5.2 +/- 0.7). Pharmacy software that provided detailed DDI information as well as the ability to customize DDI alerts were associated with more favorable perceptions of DDI alerts.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite being presented with a large proportion of clinically unimportant alerts, community pharmacy managers did not believe DDI alerts were meaningless or a waste of time. Incorporation of features that streamline DDI alerts may improve their effectiveness in community pharmacy practice.
Abarca
Jacob
J
Center for Health Outcomes and PharmacoEconomic Research, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210207, Tucson, AZ 85721-0207, USA. abarca@pharmacy.arizona.edu
Malone
Daniel C
DC
Skrepnek
Grant H
GH
Rehfeld
Rick A
RA
Murphy
John E
JE
Grizzle
Amy J
AJ
Armstrong
Edward P
EP
Woosley
Raymond L
RL
D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D004347:Drug Interactions; D006801:Humans