Development of a Personal Digital Assistant Application for Pharmacy Documentation

Authors

  • George E. MacKinnon Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice, Midwestern University, 19555 N. 59th Avenue, Glendale, AZ 85308, USA

Keywords:

Interventions, Student, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Technology

Abstract

As the role of pharmacists becomes more patient-focused and market pressures demand increased accountability of pharmacists, the importance of documenting pharmacists professional activities related to patient care becomes paramount. Efficient means by which to document and transmit such activities of pharmacists have not been fully developed or are not universally applied in professional practice. This paper describes a method for documenting pharmacy student interventions during experiential rotations with personal digital assistants (PDA). The pharmacy student documentation system (PSDSq) requires a “point-and-click” action by the user on a pre-programmed electronic form that documents common reasons for interventions, actions taken, recommendations provided, and clinical service provide. Also collected is the time involved, the outcomes of recommendations, what personnel initiated the intervention, medications involved, and the potential impact on patients’ health related quality of life. The use of PDA applications as described within this paper embody the spirit of the recommendations from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports, the Leapfrog Group, and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems being implemented. The PSDSq and other computer technologies have the potential to increase communication among members of the healthcare team to achieve defined therapeutic outcomes for patients while documenting the various contributions of the respective providers in the delivery of quality healthcare.

References

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (1998) “ASHP guidelines on the safe use of automated medication storage and distribution devices”, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 55, 1403–1407.

Crossing the Quality Chasm. A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Institute of Medicine (National Academy Press, Washington, DC).

Hepler, C.D. and Stand, L.M. (1990) “Opportunities and responsibilities in pharmaceutical care”, American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy 47, 533–543.

Kohn, L.T., Corrigan, J.M. and Donaldson, M.S. (1999) To Err is Human. Building a Safer Health System, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Institute of Medicine (National Academy Press, Washington, DC),.

Lau, A., Balen, R.M., Lam, R. and Malyuk, D.L. (2001) “Using a personal digital assistant to document clinical pharmacy services in an intensive care unit”, American Journal Health- System Pharmacy 58, 1229–1232.

Low, J. (2000) “Seamless care anyone?”, The Australian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy 27, 356–357.

MacKinnon, III, G.E. (2003) “Documenting Pharmacy Student Interventions via Scannable Patient Care Activity Records (PCARq)”, Pharmacy Education 2, 4.

McCain, J. (2001) “Leapfrog Group actions will be felt throughout the health care system”, Managed Care 10(6), 26A–26H.

NCPDP (2001/2002) “SCRIPT Standard”, Council Connection. 7, 14–15.

Overhage, J.M. and Lukes, A. (1999) “Practical, reliable, comprehensive method for characterizing pharmacists’ clinical activities”, American Journal Health-System Pharmacy 56, 2444–2449.

“Pharmacy Student Documentation System” (PSDS) (2001) Version 1.0.

Sauer, B.L., Heeren, D.L., Walker, R.G., King, J.H. and Musallam, N.A. (1997) “Computerized documentation of activities of Pharm.D. clerkship students”, American Journal Health-System Pharmacy 54, 1727–1732.

Sexton, J., Ho, Y.J. and Green, C.F. (2000) “Ensuring seamless care at hospital discharge: a national survey”, Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 25, 385–393.

Downloads

Published

23-01-2003

How to Cite

MacKinnon, G. E. (2003). Development of a Personal Digital Assistant Application for Pharmacy Documentation. Pharmacy Education, 3(1). Retrieved from https://pharmacyeducation.fip.org/pharmacyeducation/article/view/21

Issue

Section

Research Article