Selecting performance indicators for hospital pharmacy practice: A Canadian initiative

Activity-based funding is a method of funding hospitals according to the type and volume of services provided and adjusted to their patient population. Currently, pharmacy practice is mainly evaluated with costs and volumes, which are insufficient to properly measure the contribution of pharmacists. Facing the province of Quebec statewide implementation of activity-based funding, expert committees were set up to develop a set of indicators using a predefined framework to assess pharmacy performance throughout all hospital activities and patient care. Through consultations, partners and stakeholders showed strong support for the initiative, putting more emphasis on the assessment of appropriateness as well as quality and safety. Among the different roles of pharmacists, respondents favoured the assessment of the pharmaceutical care and education of trainees and colleagues. Of the 150 candidate indicators initially identified, 24 were selected, of which 13 were prioritised for experimentation.