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Pharmaceutical Review: Resource Implications for the Pharmacy Component in Australian Public Hospitals
Author(s) -
O'Leary Karen M,
Allinson Yvonne M
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of pharmacy practice and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2055-2335
pISSN - 1445-937X
DOI - 10.1002/j.2055-2335.2006.tb00632.x
Subject(s) - pharmacy , medicine , pharmacist , workforce , clinical pharmacy , service (business) , blueprint , service delivery framework , nursing , family medicine , business , marketing , mechanical engineering , engineering , economics , economic growth
Background Pharmaceutical review requires a facility‐wide approach and multidisciplinary collaboration between all involved in the use of medicines. Standards of practice for clinical pharmacy services and distribution of medicines, provide a blueprint for two activity groups provided by pharmacy services that contribute to pharmaceutical review. Aim To explore the pharmacy components required to deliver pharmaceutical review in Australian public hospitals and examine the resource implications to meet these objectives. Method Workforce data were collected from a questionnaire sent to hospital pharmacy managers in 2005. Respondents were asked to detail the pharmacist full‐time equivalents (FTEs) devoted to clinical, distribution and management activities. They were also asked to detail clinical service delivery models and the number of beds at their facility according to clinical pharmacy categories. Ratios of the number of pharmacists to clinical pharmacy bed type were used to calculate the national workforce requirements estimated after extrapolation. Results Approximately 768 pharmacist FTEs would be required to provide a basic clinical pharmacy service (3 clinical pharmacy activities: accurate medication history, assessment of current medication management, provision of medicines information to patients) for all patients in Australian public hospitals; approximately 1300 pharmacist FTEs would be required for a comprehensive clinical pharmacy service. This equates to 58 minutes of pharmacist time during an inpatient stay, for each overnight admission. At least 40% of clinical pharmacy services are required for general medical type beds and this should be considered when identifying the skills base required in the hospital pharmacy workforce. Conclusion Retaining the current highly skilled pharmacist workforce and attracting pharmacists into the hospital sector to fill vacant establishment positions is the first step. The number of establishment positions will then need to be increased nationally to fully deliver pharmaceutical review in Australia's public hospitals.