Documentation and analysis of after-hours drug information requests in a general hospital

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To document, analyse and evaluate drug information (DI) requests received by shift pharmacists during after-hours in the inpatient pharmacy at Mater Dei Hospital. METHOD: A documentation tool entitled ‘After-Hours DI Documentation Form’ was developed for the purpose of recording DI requests received after-hours. A pilot study was conducted using the developed tool, which was validated by an expert panel. Subsequently, DI requests received over a 6-month period were recorded. Data was analysed qualitatively. KEY FINDINGS: Results obtained from a total of 65 shifts from a possible 82 were included in the study. A total of 224 DI requests were recorded using the documentation form. From these, 50.4% were received during night shifts and 49.6% during day shifts. Seventy-two percent of all requests were placed by nursing staff. Pharmacists provided information verbally over the telephone in 91.5% of cases. The requester was provided with information within 30 minutes in 99.1% of situations. The majority of requests (88.4%), concerned one type of medication. A total of 240 reference sources were consulted by pharmacists. Textbooks were the most commonly used in 37.5% of cases. Most requests (76.8%) fell within the category of drug administration, drug identification and availability. The 224 requests involved 254 different medications, 53.6% of which were injectable formulations. CONCLUSION: The documentation form developed and used during this study can be used to record DI requests received. Measures need to be implemented to increase the use of online sources by pharmacists during the provision of DI.