Practice-enhancing publications about the medication-use process in 2019

Abstract

Purpose This article identifies, prioritizes, and summarizes published literature on the medication-use process (MUP) from calendar year 2019 that can impact health-system pharmacy daily practice. The MUP is the foundational system that provides the framework for safe medication utilization within the healthcare environment. The MUP is defined in this article as having the following components: prescribing/transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring. Articles that evaluated one of the steps were gauged for their usefulness in promoting daily practice change. Summary A PubMed search was conducted in January 2020 for calendar year 2019 using targeted Medical Subject Headings keywords; in addition, searches of the table of contents of selected pharmacy journals were conducted. A total of 4,317 articles were identified. A thorough review identified 66 potentially practice-enhancing articles: 17 for prescribing/transcribing, 17 for dispensing, 7 for administration, and 25 for monitoring. Ranking of the articles for importance by peers led to the selection of key articles from each category. The highest-ranked articles are briefly summarized, with a mention of why each article is important within health-system pharmacy. The other articles are listed for further review and evaluation. Conclusion It is important to routinely review the published literature and to incorporate significant findings into daily practice; this article assists in identifying and summarizing the most impactful recently published literature in this area. Health-system pharmacists have an active role in improving the MUP in their institution, and awareness of the significant published studies can assist in changing practice at the institutional level.

Establishing a Workload Productivity Target in an Outpatient Infusion Pharmacy

“…While this is important, there is very little in the literature regarding what those benchmarks should be. As Vest, et al (2019) described, there are several barriers to establishing a standard approach across different institutions, or even within the same institution. Some of these are the variations in practice among various sites, the difficulty in measuring the value of cognitive work, the increasing emphasis on value-based care, and the unique concerns of inpatient vs. outpatient settings.…”

“…In today's economy and healthcare landscape, hospitals are operating on increasingly thin margins. As medication costs continue to rise (Kesselheim, et al) and healthcare becomes more complex (Vest, 2019), hospital pharmacies are under pressure to improve operating efficiencies and reduce costs. While personnel costs generally account for only about 20% of a hospital pharmacy budget (Rough, et al, Feb 2010), it is still important for pharmacy leaders to consider ways to optimize pharmacy workforce to avoid understaffing or overstaffing, both of which have negative implications for health systems.…”

“…Additionally, it can ultimately improve patient care and lead to cost savings for the health-system. Vest (2019) further highlights that, in addition to cost savings, benchmarking can help prevent missed opportunities for revenue generation. It can also provide a level of insight into workflow efficiencies that can allow flexible scheduling (i.e., upsizing or downsizing based on predicted volumes) that can help control labor costs.…”