Developing a Quality Assurance Program for Drug Information Requests Answered by Staff Pharmacists

A quality assurance program was developed at an 800-bed tertiary care hospital to determine if pharmacists working outside a formal drug information center were providing adequate responses and appropriately documenting drug information requests, and if requesters were satisfied with the service. Two instruments, an audit form that could be used by peers to examine written documentation and a satisfaction questionnaire sent to requesters, were constructed. All drug information requests were evaluated for a four-week period. Seventy-eight questions were documented, 57 of which had sufficient information to allow user satisfaction questionnaires to be sent. Compliance with documentation was generally good, except for the name of the requester (73%) and the location and/or pager of the requester (65%). The drug information responses given met audit standards for 85% of requests. Eight questions were judged to need further referral, eg, to the drug information center. Replies from the user questionnaire demonstrated that information was primarily used in direct patient care. The quality assurance program identified subject areas of weakness, eg, drugs and pregnancy, which need to be addressed in continuing education programs and highlighted areas in which documentation could be improved.