Implementation of an electronic pharmacy scoring tool to prioritize clinical pharmacists' daily workflow at a pediatric institution

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the development and implementation of an electronic pharmacy scoring tool (PST) to prioritize patients requiring clinical pharmacy intervention and assist in workload management in a freestanding pediatric hospital using quality improvement methodology.

Summary: The department of pharmacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital developed a pediatric-specific PST within the electronic medical record to aid in patient prioritization and ensuring proficient daily workflow and qualifying workload for clinical pharmacists. The PST identifies patients for monitoring of high-risk medications, complex medication regimens, or abnormal laboratory values related to medication management. Application of the scoring tool ensures each patient is reviewed by clinical pharmacy staff each day, with initial efforts focused on patients with significant clinical pharmacy needs. This tool reduces the need for time-intensive manual chart review for identification of patients whose medication use and/or laboratory values afford greater opportunity for pharmacist intervention. Additionally, clinical pharmacist productivity metrics and workloads are considered, with the qualifying of patient care activities and quantification of time spent on patient review.

Conclusion: A PST enhances pediatric patient prioritization for clinical pharmacists by identifying patients most likely to require intervention in real time. The scoring tool enables future assessment of clinical pharmacists' workload assignments and better quantifies time spent on patient care activities.

Keywords: clinical pharmacy services; electronic medical record; patient scoring; pediatric pharmacy scoring; pharmacists; prioritization.