Validating a clinical workload measurement instrument for documenting pharmaceutical care.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a workload documentation instrument to manually record clinically oriented pharmaceutical care activities. Previous research documents clinical workload by pharmacists; however, the tools employed have not been tested for validity. Reported information is difficult to interpret since individuals are unlikely to categorize activities in a consistent manner. PharmaTrend was used as a template for defining activity and problem categories that corresponded to various clinical activities performed by our clinical, faculty, and staff pharmacists. Because the institution was not completely computerized, the actual documentation tool was portable and manual. Testing of the original instrument was accomplished using a survey consisting of written scenarios. Two phases of testing were required to achieve an overall 80 percent accuracy rate. At least 60 percent of available pharmacists participated in both phases and completed 90 percent or more of the surveys. The investigators concluded that an instrument to record clinically oriented pharmaceutical care activities had been developed, tested, and validated.