Implementing personal digital assistant documentation of pharmacist interventions in a military treatment facility.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in documenting pharmacists' clinical interventions.


METHODS
Evans Army Community Hospital (EACH), a 78-bed military treatment facility, in Colorado Springs.


METHODS
Pharmacists on staff at EACH.


METHODS
All pharmacists at EACH used PDAs with the pilot software to record interventions for 1 month. The program underwent final design changes and then became the sole source for recording pharmacist interventions. The results of this project are being evaluated every 3 months for the first year and yearly thereafter.


METHODS
Visual CE (Syware Inc. Cambridge, Mass.) software was selected to develop fields for the documentation tool. This software is simple and easy to use, and users can retrieve reports of interventions from both inpatient and outpatient sections. The software needed to be designed so that data entry would only take a few minutes and ad hoc reports could be produced easily.


METHODS
Number of pharmacist interventions reported, time spent in clinical interventions, and outcome of clinical intervention.


RESULTS
Implementing a PDA-based system for documenting pharmacist interventions across ambulatory, inpatient, and clinical services dramatically increased reporting during the first 6 months after implementation (August 2004-February 2005). After initial fielding, clinical pharmacists in advanced practice settings (such as disease management clinic, anticoagulation clinic) recognized a need to tailor the program to their specific activities, which resulted in a spin-off program unique to their practice roles.


CONCLUSIONS
A PDA-based system for documenting clinical interventions at a military treatment facility increased reporting of interventions across all pharmacy points of service. Pharmacy leadership used these data to document the impact of pharmacist interventions on safety and quality of pharmaceutical care provided.
Ford
Stephen
S
Military Vaccine Agency, 5113 Leesburg Pike, Suite 402, Falls Church, VA 22041-3204, USA. stephen.ford@us.army.mil
Illich
Stan
S
Smith
Lisa
L
Franklin
Arthur
A
D034201:Computers, Handheld / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004282:Documentation; D006743:Hospital Bed Capacity, under 100; D006772:Hospitals, Military; D006801:Humans; D010595:Pharmacists; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States