Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association (Washington, D.C. : 1996)最新文献

To develop guidelines for the documentation elements that need to be included in any record of pharmacist-provided care to allow the quality of the care to be assessed and to describe the use of these guidelines to improve the quality of pharmacist documentation.

Design:

An initial list of 85 potential documentation elements, developed through a review of the literature, was validated by a group of pharmacy practitioners. Then, through three rounds of a Delphi process and a group meeting, a panel of experts reached consensus on a refined list of 27 documentation data elements.

Results:

The documentation elements were formatted into a one-page Tool for Evaluation of Documentation (TED). The TED is a checklist for assessing the completeness of the documentation of pharmacist-provided care.

Conclusion:

The TED and the consensus-building methodology used in the development of this tool can serve as cornerstones of a quality assessment process for documentation of pharmacist-provided care, enable further assessment of the quality of care, and, ultimately, be used to measure the impact of pharmacist-provided care on patient outcomes. Our results should provide guidance both to pharmacists providing care and to organizations that assess the quality of that care.

To review opportunities through which pharmacists can help the United States achieve its public health goals as expressed in Healthy People 2010, a document issued by the federal government that expresses the areas of focus for Americans in the first decade of the 21st century.

Summary:

Healthy People 2010 provides general goals for 10 leading health indicators (such as tobacco use, overweight and obesity, and immunizations), and these are then further subdivided into 28 focus areas, many of them with quantifiable goals (such as, “Reduce hospitalization rates for three ambulatory care-sensitive conditions—pediatric asthma, uncontrolled diabetes, and immunization-preventable pneumonia and influenza.”). As health care professionals, pharmacists have the responsibility to help the country meet these goals. Ideas for increased pharmacist involvement are described in the article, including the conduct of screening programs and provision of specialized services that focus on such areas as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, patient education, smoking cessation, or general medication management. Pharmacists can build their efforts in these and similar areas by collaborating with physicians and other appropriate professionals, identifying target patients who have obtained services at the pharmacy, contacting patients in at-risk populations within the pharmacy's patient base and/or the community, choosing and monitoring an objective of interest, and maintaining efforts for sustained time periods.

Conclusion:

The message of Healthy People 2010 is that the health of the individual is closely linked to the health of the community and hence the health of the nation. Pharmacists, uniquely positioned as the most accessible health care providers in the community, can dedicate their considerable strengths toward using Healthy People 2010 as a tool to organize their own efforts and motivate their patients.

To demonstrate whether a community pharmacist can be successful in identifying and referring patients with elevated blood pressure and/or increased risk of stroke.

Setting:

An independent community pharmacy and well-elderly housing facility in rural Iowa.

Practice Description:

The pharmacy had dedicated space for patient care activities, had a community pharmacy practice resident, and served as a clerkship site for a local school of pharmacy. One of three well-elderly housing facilities in the same community was used as a screening site for the stroke prevention program.

Practice Innovation:

All adults entering the pharmacy during the time the blood pressure project was underway were offered a free blood pressure screening. If readings were elevated, patients were referred to their primary care provider. For stroke prevention, a screening using the American Heart Association stroke risk assessment protocol was held at the pharmacy and the well-elderly housing facility.

Main Outcome Measures:

Blood pressure categories and stroke risk (normal, mild, moderate, and high) categories obtained during the screening.

Results:

A total of 351 patients were screened for hypertension. Of these, 216 (62%) had readings greater than 140/90 mm Hg. Of the 121 patients referred to their physician, 43 (36%) had a regimen change. A total of 50 patients were screened for stroke risk. Results of the risk assessments for patients screened were normal, 4%; mild, 26%; moderate, 32%; high, 38%.

Conclusion:

These projects demonstrated that, through ongoing screening programs, community pharmacists are in an ideal position to screen patients at risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and refer patients to their physicians for further evaluation.