Implications The success of this restructuring has solidified plans for similar restructuring at the other hospitals within the regional responsibilities of our clinical leadership team. Although modifications of the model may be needed to reflect the size of individual hospitals, the overarching principle is to provide proactive pharmaceutical care to patients with high needs. As [...]

Continue reading " Care Providers’ Satisfaction with Restructured Clinical Pharmacy Services: DISCUSSION part 2 "

Despite initial concerns that staff pharmacists would be resistant to a substantial change to their practices, pharmacists were generally satisfied with the new structure and felt that their contributions to patient care were valued. Challenges experienced by pharmacists included a sense of guilt for not providing the same level of coverage to secondary teams and programs [...]

Continue reading " Care Providers’ Satisfaction with Restructured Clinical Pharmacy Services: DISCUSSION "

During the evaluation period of July—August 2007, a total of 26 completed surveys were received from pharmacists, 223 from nurses, and 92 from physicians. All of the completed surveys were included in the final analyses. Analyses of results were descriptive, and inferential statistical analyses were not performed. The response rate for pharmacists was 58% (26 [...]

Continue reading " Care Providers’ Satisfaction with Restructured Clinical Pharmacy Services: RESULTS "

Implementation and Evaluation of the Program Once the implementation date was set (February 2006), site managers and clinical practice leaders reviewed the planned changes with pharmacy staff and other stakeholders, such as program directors and lead physicians. Neither the pharmacy staff nor the stakeholders were directly consulted in the development of the program; rather, they [...]

Continue reading " Care Providers’ Satisfaction with Restructured Clinical Pharmacy Services: METHODS "

Development of the Clinical Program The clinical program was developed in a multistep process. First, the clinical leadership team (the regional clinical practice leaders, including T.M.M.) conducted an informal review of the pharmacy literature and held a consensus meeting to identify a core set of clinical pharmacist services (Box 1). These activities were based on [...]

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INTRODUCTION Clinical pharmacy services and pharmaceutical care have been shown to improve patient outcomes in a variety of inpatient settings, including general medicine teams and critical care units. Despite this evidence, provision of these services is inconsistent across hospitals in Canada. In fact, many of the most highly ranked clinical services defined by Bond and [...]

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Overall, during the year 2007, the ACTH stimulation test was ordered for an inappropriate indication more often than for an appropriate indication (27 times versus 8 times, respectively). The majority of tests with an inappropriate indication were for septic shock unresponsive to fluid and inotropes (15/27). This result was expected, as most of the literature before [...]

Continue reading " Appropriateness of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Stimulation Test: DISCUSSION "