title: Community pharmacy managers' perception of computerized drug-drug interaction alerts.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abarca
authors.forename: Daniel C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Malone
authors.forename: Grant H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Skrepnek
authors.forename: Rick A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Rehfeld
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Grizzle
authors.forename: Edward P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: Raymond L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Woosley
mesh_terms: 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