Lecture 3-Measuring Pharmacy's Work in the 21st Century.

Richard Parrish

doi:10.3390/pharmacy6030063

Abstract

The importance of developing a thoroughly shared understanding of mission, vision, and values is highlighted in reference to the creation of meaningful and sustainable key performance indicators (KPIs). A review of clinical practice KPIs (cpKPIs) and operational KPIs (opKPIs) is provided using work load measurement activities from Canada, its province of Alberta, and the United Kingdom. In order for Singaporean pharmacy clinicians and leaders to embrace a unified KPI system, the natural tendency to measure what is easy and available, instead of what matters to patients, is difficult but must be overcome.

Highlights

Ask 10 pharmacists how to capture their workload on any aspect of the practice, and you will get at least 25 good answers
There are four huge temptations to overcome when deciding what to count as work: (1) the rush to fix workload measurement without a thoroughly shared understanding of mission, vision, and values; (2) output measurement in terms of either revenue generation or of cost avoidance; (3) casual empiricism, i.e., the sole reliance on anecdotes, stories, and experiences to base one’s actions; and (4) the unchecked proliferation of so-called “hobby-pharming,” with a ‘ph’ for the ‘f’ in pharming
As mentioned in the prior lectures on clinical practice and formularies, and with Ken Barker’s admonition about pseudopharmacy in mind, let’s dig a bit deeper into these tendencies in order to discover the true nature of workload measurement as well as set up the two lectures on the application of dashboards and the development of predictive analytics for managing those pharmacist and technician activities that really matter to patients

Summary

Introduction

Ask 10 pharmacists how to capture their workload on any aspect of the practice, and you will get at least 25 good answers. The problem with workload measurement is that the work of the pharmacist and pharmacy technician are changing rapidly. There are four huge temptations to overcome when deciding what to count as work: (1) the rush to fix workload measurement without a thoroughly shared understanding of mission, vision, and values; (2) output measurement in terms of either revenue generation or of cost avoidance (the private good versus public utility argument); (3) casual empiricism, i.e., the sole reliance on anecdotes, stories, and experiences to base one’s actions; and (4) the unchecked proliferation of so-called “hobby-pharming,” with a ‘ph’ for the ‘f’ in pharming. What-if clinical pharmacists practiced in collaboration with other healthcare providers because this structure was found to be the most beneficial for patients? Examining state-specific challenges and promising practices from other states will allow states to develop policies that permit pharmacists to practice within the full scope of their professional training across the health care continuum”. [2]

Could there be any clearer definition of individual and societal need?

Findings

Measurement Efforts