Kelly W N, Krause E C, Krowinski W J, Small T R, Drane J F
Pharmacy and Drug Information Service, Hamot Medical Center, Erie, PA 16550.
Am J Hosp Pharm. 1990 Oct;47(10):2245-50.
Whether and how drug information centers respond to calls from the public that involve ethical issues was studied. A survey describing six ethical dilemmas typical of those presented by calls from the public was mailed to pharmacists in 154 drug information centers to see how the questions would be handled. Centers that had written policies governing responses to questions with ethical implications were asked to submit those policies. One hundred twenty-six centers (82%) responded to the survey; of these, 81 (64.3%) answered questions from the public. There were no significant differences in characteristics between centers that did and did not respond to public calls. The case analyses, completed only by pharmacists in centers that responded to public calls, covered such issues as invasion of privacy, social responsibility, personal liability, and interference with the patient-physician relationship. Respondents exercised a wide degree of discretion in determining if they would answer a question; for example, while only 4% would not answer a question concerning the efficacy of a weight-loss diet patch, 77% reported they would not respond to a caller asking for information on drugs that could interfere with the results of a polygraph test. Although respondents often cited institutional policy as the reason for failing to respond to a question, none submitted a copy of such a policy. The pharmacists' responses indicated a high degree of moral and social sensitivity; nonetheless, written policies should be developed to assist drug information center staff members in handling questions that have ethical implications.
研究了药物信息中心是否以及如何回应来自公众的涉及伦理问题的来电。一项描述公众来电中典型的六种伦理困境的调查被邮寄给154个药物信息中心的药剂师，以了解这些问题将如何处理。被要求提交那些针对具有伦理影响的问题的书面政策的中心被要求提交这些政策。126个中心（82%）回应了调查；其中，81个（64.3%）回答了公众的问题。回应和未回应公众来电的中心在特征上没有显著差异。仅由回应公众来电的中心的药剂师完成的案例分析涵盖了隐私侵犯、社会责任、个人责任以及对医患关系的干扰等问题。受访者在决定是否回答问题时行使了广泛的自由裁量权；例如，虽然只有4%的人不会回答关于减肥饮食贴片功效的问题，但77%的人报告称他们不会回应询问可干扰测谎测试结果的药物信息的来电者。尽管受访者经常将机构政策作为不回答问题的原因，但没有一个人提交这样一项政策的副本。药剂师的回答表明了高度的道德和社会敏感性；尽管如此，仍应制定书面政策以协助药物信息中心工作人员处理具有伦理影响的问题。
