A checklist for the development of faculty mentorship programs

Mentoring of junior faculty members continues to be a widespread need in academic pharmacy in both new programs and established schools. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Joint Council Task Force on Mentoring was charged with gathering information from member colleges and schools and from the literature to determine best practices that could be shared with the academy. The task force summarized their findings regarding the needs and responsibilities for mentors and protégés at all faculty levels; what mentoring pieces are in existence, which need improvement, and which need to be created; and how effective mentoring is defined and could be measured. Based on these findings, the task force developed several recommendations as well as the PAIRS Faculty Mentorship Checklist. Academic institutions can benefit from the checklist whether they are planning to implement a faculty mentorship program or are interested in modifying existing programs.

Financial Analysis of Cardiovascular Wellness Program Provided to Self-Insured Company from Pharmaceutical Care Provider’s Perspective

OBJECTIVES

To perform a retrospective financial analysis on the implementation of a self-insured company's wellness program from the pharmaceutical care provider's perspective and conduct sensitivity analyses to estimate costs versus revenues for pharmacies without resident pharmacists, program implementation for a second employer, the second year of the program, and a range of pharmacist wages.

DESIGN

Cost-benefit and sensitivity analyses.

SETTING

Self-insured employer with headquarters in Canton, N.C.

PATIENTS

36 employees at facility in Clinton, Iowa.

INTERVENTIONS

Pharmacist-provided cardiovascular wellness program.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Costs and revenues collected from pharmacy records, including pharmacy purchasing records, billing records, and pharmacists' time estimates.

METHODS

All costs and revenues were calculated for the development and first year of the intervention program. Costs included initial and follow-up screening supplies, office supplies, screening/group presentation time, service provision time, documentation/preparation time, travel expenses, claims submission time, and administrative fees. Revenues included initial screening revenues, follow-up screening revenues, group session revenues, and Heart Smart program revenues.

RESULTS

For the development and first year of Heart Smart, net benefit to the pharmacy (revenues minus costs) amounted to dollars 2,413. All sensitivity analyses showed a net benefit. For pharmacies without a resident pharmacist, the net benefit was dollars 106; for Heart Smart in a second employer, the net benefit was dollars 6,024; for the second year, the projected net benefit was dollars 6,844; factoring in a lower pharmacist salary, the net benefit was dollars 2,905; and for a higher pharmacist salary, the net benefit was dollars 1,265.

CONCLUSION

For the development and first year of Heart Smart, the revenues of the wellness program in a self-insured company outweighed the costs.

Identification of essential elements in the documentation of pharmacist-provided care

OBJECTIVES

[corrected] To develop guidelines for the documentation elements that need to be included in any record of pharmacist-provided care to allow the quality of the care to be assessed and to describe the use of these guidelines to improve the quality of pharmacist documentation.

DESIGN

An initial list of 85 potential documentation elements, developed through a review of the literature, was validated by a group of pharmacy practitioners. Then, through three rounds of a Delphi process and a group meeting, a panel of experts reached consensus on a refined list of 27 documentation data elements.

RESULTS

The documentation elements were formatted into a one-page Tool for Evaluation of Documentation (TED). The TED is a checklist for assessing the completeness of the documentation of pharmacist-provided care.

CONCLUSION

The TED and the consensus-building methodology used in the development of this tool can serve as cornerstones of a quality assessment process for documentation of pharmacist-provided care, enable further assessment of the quality of care, and, ultimately, be used to measure the impact of pharmacist-provided care on patient outcomes. Our results should provide guidance both to pharmacists providing care and to organizations that assess the quality of that care.

Implementation of a community pharmacy-based influenza vaccination program

OBJECTIVE

To increase accessibility of influenza vaccine in a rural community by establishing a community pharmacy-based influenza vaccination program.

SETTING

An independent pharmacy in a rural eastern Iowa community of 5,000 people.

PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

Protocols for identification and screening of patients, administration of vaccine, and treatment of emergencies were developed by the pharmacist and approved by the county health department medical director. Administration of vaccine began October 15, 1996, and was completed on December 6, 1996.

PRACTICE INNOVATION

Patients were prospectively and retrospectively identified to receive the vaccination. Informed consent was obtained. Vaccine was administered by the pharmacist after screening for contraindications and counseling the patient. Weekly vaccination records were forwarded to the collaborating physician to update patient charts.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS

To determine whether accessibility of influenza vaccine in the community was increased through pharmacist administration, the proportion of patients immunized in the pharmacy who were not vaccinated the previous year was determined.

RESULTS

The pharmacist administered 343 doses of vaccine. Two-thirds of the immunized patients (67.9%) reported also being immunized the previous year. These patients were generally older (65 years of age +/- 13) than the previously nonimmunized patients (54 years of age +/- 16). However, 60.8% of the patients not immunized the previous year reported either they would not have gone elsewhere for the immunization (45.3%), or were unsure (25.5%).

CONCLUSION

The data collected suggest that pharmacist administration of influenza vaccination in a rural community pharmacy increases access and, possibly, immunization rates. This may be especially true among high-risk younger adults who are often overlooked and would not normally have received the immunization.

Effect of a training program on community pharmacists' detection of and intervention in drug-related problems

OBJECTIVE

To develop and present a pharmaceutical care training program for pharmacists, and to examine the ability of these pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical care in a community pharmacy setting.

DESIGN

Prospective, randomized study.

INTERVENTION

A 40-hour pharmaceutical care training program was developed and presented to pharmacists, and 1,078 patients were randomly assigned to receive either (1) traditional pharmacy services or (2) pharmaceutical care, consisting of initial patient work-up and follow-up with documentation in a patient record.

MEASUREMENTS

The study period was six months. Pharmacists documented problems identified, actions taken, and time required for all patients.

RESULTS

Pharmacists consistently identified and intervened to address problems in both study groups. Patients receiving pharmaceutical care were more than seven times as likely to have any problems identified (odds ratio [OR] 7.5; confidence interval [CI] 4.2-13.1), more than eight times as likely to have an intervention performed (OR, 8.1; CI 4.7-14.2), and more than eight times as likely to have a drug-related problem identified (OR 8.6; CI 4.8-15.5) than were patients receiving traditional pharmacy services only. Time spent counseling patients was similar for the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

The training program proved to be an effective way to increase the number of problems identified and addressed by pharmacists.