Defining, capturing, and validating pharmacists' patient profile reviews in the electronic medical record

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the implementation and validation of a novel patient profile review tool in the electronic medical record (EMR) at an academic medical center. Summary: Pharmacy leaders at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center aspired to develop a data-driven approach to clinical pharmacy services. The initial phase of this vision highlighted a need to define the clinical activities of a pharmacist and leverage use of the EMR to seamlessly capture data. A comprehensive list of clinical activities was developed and analyzed to determine which activities were currently uncaptured. Patient profile review was prioritized and determined to be variable among staff and undefined. A profile review tool was developed and implemented across the medical center while requiring minimal additional documentation through the EMR. Phase II determined what user audit trail data in the EMR were automatically recorded based on performing various levels of pharmacist-recorded profile review and validated the consistency in utilization of this tool. The information gathered as a result of this study identified interactions within the patient chart that matched profile reviews that were not captured during manual documentation. The department of pharmacy will utilize the data generated from this tool to better make decisions and build a comprehensive clinical productivity model. Conclusion: The implementation of a pharmacist patient profile review tool built within the EMR successfully defined, stratified, validated time spent on, and captured a clinical activity.