Evaluation of ward pharmacy activity and effects of a change in non-stock ward supply

Abstract

Abstract An activity sampling technique was used to compare the work patterns of clinical pharmacists at hospital ward level within six specialties at the West Suffolk hospital, UK. Significant differences were found between specialties for the activities of prescription and clinical monitoring, stock control and the transcription of prescriptions, travel, annotation, intervention with a doctor or nurse, information to a patient and unproductive time (P<0.05). On the psycho-geriatric and long-stay geriatric wards, a substantial proportion of pharmacist activity was found to be devoted to stock control and transcription. Two new systems of drug supply were then introduced to these wards and the activity sampling procedure was used to evaluate the effect of the change. It was found that a system employing a technician top-up service significantly reduced the proportion of time the pharmacist spent on stock control and transcription (P<0.0001) and increased the time spent on clinical monitoring (P<0.05). An estimate based on “total contact time” per occupied bed showed that this new method of supply was achieved at little or no increase in cost, and was arguably a more effective use of pharmacist and technician skills.