Documenting pharmacist interventions on an intranet.

Abstract

The process of developing and implementing an intranet Web site for clinical intervention documentation is described. An inpatient pharmacy department initiated an organizationwide effort to improve documentation of interventions by pharmacists at its seven hospitals to achieve real-time capture of meaningful benchmarking data. Standardization of intervention types would allow the health system to contrast and compare medication use, process improvement, and patient care initiatives among its hospitals. After completing a needs assessment and reviewing current methodologies, a computerized tracking tool was developed in-house and integrated with the organization's intranet. Representatives from all hospitals agreed on content and functionality requirements for the Web site. The site was completed and activated in February 2002. Before this Web site was established, the most documented intervention types were Renal Adjustment and Clarify Dose, with a daily average of four and three, respectively. After site activation, daily averages for Renal Adjustment remained unchanged, but Clarify Dose is now documented nine times per day. Drug Information and i.v.-to-p.o. intervention types, which previously averaged less than one intervention per day, are now documented an average of four times daily. Approximately 91% of staff pharmacists are using this site. Future plans for this site include enhanced accessibility to the site with wireless personal digital assistants. The design and implementation of an intranet Web site to document pharmacists' interventions doubled the rate of intervention documentation and standardized the intervention types among hospitals in the health system.