Communicating P & T guidelines: how one committee meets the challenge.

The P & T Committee's role in advocating rational therapeutics is addressed in this exclusive Hospital Formulary interview with Richard Dreyfus, MD, and Fredrick Bender, PharmD, P & T Committee chairman and secretary at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie, PA. This Committee has evolved beyond providing strictly formulary review and regulation and is now involved in utilization review of certain drugs in an effort to maximize their therapeutic potential. They stress the importance of communicating and educating the medical staff with regard to formulary issues and discuss the methods they find to be most effective. Methods for maintaining altered prescribing patterns, drug utilization review, adverse drug reaction reporting, and formulary review are highlighted.