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Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of pharmacists’ dispensing workload (PDW) on pharmacy services as measured by prescription suggestion rate (PSR) and dispensing error rate (DER). METHOD: This was an observational study in northern and southern Taiwan’s two largest medical centers, from 2012 to 2...

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Autores principales: Shao, Shih-Chieh, Chan, Yuk-Ying, Lin, Swu-Jane, Li, Chung-Yi, Kao Yang, Yea-Huei, Chen, Yi-Hua, Chen, Hui-Yu, Lai, Edward Chia-Cheng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32315319
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231482
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author Shao, Shih-Chieh
Chan, Yuk-Ying
Lin, Swu-Jane
Li, Chung-Yi
Kao Yang, Yea-Huei
Chen, Yi-Hua
Chen, Hui-Yu
Lai, Edward Chia-Cheng
author_facet Shao, Shih-Chieh
Chan, Yuk-Ying
Lin, Swu-Jane
Li, Chung-Yi
Kao Yang, Yea-Huei
Chen, Yi-Hua
Chen, Hui-Yu
Lai, Edward Chia-Cheng
author_sort Shao, Shih-Chieh
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of pharmacists’ dispensing workload (PDW) on pharmacy services as measured by prescription suggestion rate (PSR) and dispensing error rate (DER). METHOD: This was an observational study in northern and southern Taiwan’s two largest medical centers, from 2012 to 2018. We calculated monthly PDW as number of prescriptions divided by number of pharmacist working days. We used monthly PSR and DER as outcome indicators for pharmacists’ review and dispensing services, respectively. We used Poisson regression model with generalized estimation equation methods to evaluate the influence of PDW on PSR and DER. RESULTS: The monthly mean of 463,587 (SD 32,898) prescriptions yielded mean PDW, PSR and DER of 52 (SD 3) prescriptions per pharmacist working days, 30 (SD 7) and 8 (SD 2) per 10,000 prescriptions monthly, respectively. There was significant negative impact of PDW on PSR (adjusted rate ratio, aRR: 0.9786; 95%CI: 0.9744–0.9829) and DER (aRR: 0.9567; 95%CI: 0.9477–0.9658). Stratified analyses by time periods (2012–2015 and 2016–2018) revealed the impact of PDW on PSR to be similar in both periods; but with positive association between PDW and DER in the more recent one (aRR: 1.0086, 95%CI: 1.0003–1.0169). CONCLUSIONS: Reduced pharmacist workload was associated with re-allocation of pharmacy time to provide prescription suggestions and, more recently, decrease dispensing errors. Continuous efforts to maintain appropriate workload for pharmacists are recommended to ensure prescription quality.
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spelling pubmed-71738742020-04-27 Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services Shao, Shih-Chieh Chan, Yuk-Ying Lin, Swu-Jane Li, Chung-Yi Kao Yang, Yea-Huei Chen, Yi-Hua Chen, Hui-Yu Lai, Edward Chia-Cheng PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of pharmacists’ dispensing workload (PDW) on pharmacy services as measured by prescription suggestion rate (PSR) and dispensing error rate (DER). METHOD: This was an observational study in northern and southern Taiwan’s two largest medical centers, from 2012 to 2018. We calculated monthly PDW as number of prescriptions divided by number of pharmacist working days. We used monthly PSR and DER as outcome indicators for pharmacists’ review and dispensing services, respectively. We used Poisson regression model with generalized estimation equation methods to evaluate the influence of PDW on PSR and DER. RESULTS: The monthly mean of 463,587 (SD 32,898) prescriptions yielded mean PDW, PSR and DER of 52 (SD 3) prescriptions per pharmacist working days, 30 (SD 7) and 8 (SD 2) per 10,000 prescriptions monthly, respectively. There was significant negative impact of PDW on PSR (adjusted rate ratio, aRR: 0.9786; 95%CI: 0.9744–0.9829) and DER (aRR: 0.9567; 95%CI: 0.9477–0.9658). Stratified analyses by time periods (2012–2015 and 2016–2018) revealed the impact of PDW on PSR to be similar in both periods; but with positive association between PDW and DER in the more recent one (aRR: 1.0086, 95%CI: 1.0003–1.0169). CONCLUSIONS: Reduced pharmacist workload was associated with re-allocation of pharmacy time to provide prescription suggestions and, more recently, decrease dispensing errors. Continuous efforts to maintain appropriate workload for pharmacists are recommended to ensure prescription quality. Public Library of Science 2020-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7173874/ /pubmed/32315319 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231482 Text en © 2020 Shao et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shao, Shih-Chieh
Chan, Yuk-Ying
Lin, Swu-Jane
Li, Chung-Yi
Kao Yang, Yea-Huei
Chen, Yi-Hua
Chen, Hui-Yu
Lai, Edward Chia-Cheng
Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title_full Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title_fullStr Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title_full_unstemmed Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title_short Workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
title_sort workload of pharmacists and the performance of pharmacy services
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173874/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32315319
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231482
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