Self-reporting Multidimensional Work Sampling of Pharmacists in Inpatient Care ActivitiesKhaoeong HospitalKalasin Province

Abstract

Self-reported multidimensional work sampling (MDWS) was used to determine the amount of time that pharmacists spent in in-patient care services at Khaowong Hospital. The in-patient pharmacists were signaled 5 times per hour at random intervals during the working time by random reminder equipment. Following these signaling, pharmacists recorded their works in four dimensions: activities, contact, function and location. The data were collected over the three-month period from December 2005 to February 2006 during the working hour (at 8.30-12.00 and 13.00-16.30).

The number of recorded observations were 2,866. For the activity dimension, in-patient pharmacists spent most of their time on drug preparation and distribution (83.3% of working time). They spent 6.1%, 2.9%, 4.3%, and 2.9% on administrative activities, clinical pharmacy activities, delay activities, and personal activities, respectively. Considering the contact dimension, the in-patient pharmacists spent a large proportion of working time with themselves (73.1%). They spent 20.9% of working time with patients and patients’ family, and 6.0% with other health care staff (physician, nurse, pharmacist, and other personnel). Regarding to the location dimension, pharmacists spent 55.4% of working time at pharmacy stations, 25.4% at nursing station, 13.3% at patient-care areas, 1.2% at meeting rooms, and 4.6% at other locations (library, information center room, quality administrative room, and general administrative department room). Data for the function dimension indicated that the in-patient pharmacists spent the most of working time for five purposes as follows: preparing prescriptions (22.2%), preparing labels (22.0%), dispensing prescriptions (19.7%), doing patients’ drug profiles (14.9%), and reporting (4.3%).

The information generated by self-reported work sampling can be used in decision making that affects pharmacy operations for work improvement. This study showed that the in-patient pharmacists spent a little of their time on clinical pharmacy activities (<3% of working time), while they spent most of their time on drug preparation and distribution (>83% of working time). To facilitate patient-oriented care services, the time used in clinical pharmacy activities should be increased in the in-patient pharmacists’ role.