A checklist for the development of faculty mentorship programs.

Mentoring of junior faculty members continues to be a widespread need in academic pharmacy in both new programs and established schools. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Joint Council Task Force on Mentoring was charged with gathering information from member colleges and schools and from the literature to determine best practices that could be shared with the academy. The task force summarized their findings regarding the needs and responsibilities for mentors and protégés at all faculty levels; what mentoring pieces are in existence, which need improvement, and which need to be created; and how effective mentoring is defined and could be measured. Based on these findings, the task force developed several recommendations as well as the PAIRS Faculty Mentorship Checklist. Academic institutions can benefit from the checklist whether they are planning to implement a faculty mentorship program or are interested in modifying existing programs.

Workplace-based cardiovascular risk management by community pharmacists: impact on blood pressure, lipid levels, and weight.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of a community pharmacist-delivered cardiovascular case-management program by comparing body mass index (weight), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and full lipid profile at the beginning of the program with these outcome measures at the end of the program. DESIGN: Retrospective data analysis using billing data submitted between July 1, 2001, and October 31, 2004, with a pre-post design in which subjects served as their own controls. SETTING: Manufacturing workplace in rural Iowa. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-six workers with risk factors for cardiovascular disease (mean age 40.67 yrs), 37 had diabetes mellitus and 19 did not. INTERVENTION: During visits to the workers, pharmacists provided education about cardiovascular disease, identification of drug therapy problems, and importance of routine blood pressure, pulse, and weight measurements; they communicated with participants' physicians as needed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The number of pharmacist visits/participant ranged from 1-13 (mean +/- SD 6.97 +/- 3.05). Outcome measures were weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, full lipid profiles (in patients with diabetes), and percentage of patients achieving treatment goal by the end of the 3 years. Statistically significant differences between the first and last visits were achieved for both systolic (124.12 +/- 11.07 and 120.36 +/- 14.39 mm Hg, respectively, p=0.016) and diastolic (80.4 +/- 9.01 and 77.43 +/- 9.14 mm Hg, respectively, p=0.019) blood pressure. The 19 patients without diabetes showed a statistically significant improvement in diastolic blood pressure (p=0.039), but the 37 patients with diabetes did not show a significant difference. A nonsignificant increase was seen in the percentage of patients with diabetes achieving low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) level goal between the first and last visits (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: A cardiovascular case-management program delivered in the workplace to middle-aged working adults by community pharmacists improved blood pressure and reduced LDL levels. The program was not effective, however, in weight reduction.

Financial analysis of cardiovascular wellness program provided to self-insured company from pharmaceutical care provider's perspective.

OBJECTIVES: To perform a retrospective financial analysis on the implementation of a self-insured company's wellness program from the pharmaceutical care provider's perspective and conduct sensitivity analyses to estimate costs versus revenues for pharmacies without resident pharmacists, program implementation for a second employer, the second year of the program, and a range of pharmacist wages. DESIGN: Cost-benefit and sensitivity analyses. SETTING: Self-insured employer with headquarters in Canton, N.C. PATIENTS: 36 employees at facility in Clinton, Iowa. INTERVENTIONS: Pharmacist-provided cardiovascular wellness program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Costs and revenues collected from pharmacy records, including pharmacy purchasing records, billing records, and pharmacists' time estimates. METHODS: All costs and revenues were calculated for the development and first year of the intervention program. Costs included initial and follow-up screening supplies, office supplies, screening/group presentation time, service provision time, documentation/preparation time, travel expenses, claims submission time, and administrative fees. Revenues included initial screening revenues, follow-up screening revenues, group session revenues, and Heart Smart program revenues. RESULTS: For the development and first year of Heart Smart, net benefit to the pharmacy (revenues minus costs) amounted to dollars 2,413. All sensitivity analyses showed a net benefit. For pharmacies without a resident pharmacist, the net benefit was dollars 106; for Heart Smart in a second employer, the net benefit was dollars 6,024; for the second year, the projected net benefit was dollars 6,844; factoring in a lower pharmacist salary, the net benefit was dollars 2,905; and for a higher pharmacist salary, the net benefit was dollars 1,265. CONCLUSION: For the development and first year of Heart Smart, the revenues of the wellness program in a self-insured company outweighed the costs.

Identification of essential elements in the documentation of pharmacist-provided care.

OBJECTIVES: [corrected] To develop guidelines for the documentation elements that need to be included in any record of pharmacist-provided care to allow the quality of the care to be assessed and to describe the use of these guidelines to improve the quality of pharmacist documentation. DESIGN: An initial list of 85 potential documentation elements, developed through a review of the literature, was validated by a group of pharmacy practitioners. Then, through three rounds of a Delphi process and a group meeting, a panel of experts reached consensus on a refined list of 27 documentation data elements. RESULTS: The documentation elements were formatted into a one-page Tool for Evaluation of Documentation (TED). The TED is a checklist for assessing the completeness of the documentation of pharmacist-provided care. CONCLUSION: The TED and the consensus-building methodology used in the development of this tool can serve as cornerstones of a quality assessment process for documentation of pharmacist-provided care, enable further assessment of the quality of care, and, ultimately, be used to measure the impact of pharmacist-provided care on patient outcomes. Our results should provide guidance both to pharmacists providing care and to organizations that assess the quality of that care.

Identification of essential elements in the documentation of pharmacist-provided care.

OBJECTIVES To develop guidelines for the documentation elements that need to be included in any record of pharmacist-provided care to allow the quality of the care to be assessed and to describe the use of these guidelines to improve the quality of pharmacist documentation. DESIGN An initial list of 85 potential documentation elements, developed through a review of the literature, was validated by a group of pharmacy practitioners. Then, through three rounds of a Delphi process and a group meeting, a panel of experts reached consensus on a refined list of 27 documentation data elements. RESULTS The documentation elements were formatted into a one-page Tool for Evaluation of Documentation (TED). The TED is a checklist for assessing the completeness of the documentation of pharmacist-provided care. CONCLUSION The TED and the consensus-building methodology used in the development of this tool can serve as cornerstones of a quality assessment process for documentation of pharmacist-provided care, enable further assessment of the quality of care, and, ultimately, be used to measure the impact of pharmacist-provided care on patient outcomes. Our results should provide guidance both to pharmacists providing care and to organizations that assess the quality of that care.