Characterizing the American college of clinical pharmacy practice-based research network.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To present the member registry survey methods and characterize the first national clinical pharmacy practice-based research network (PBRN).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional online survey.

SETTING

A national clinical pharmacy association.

PARTICIPANTS

American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) full and associate members, integrated health system groups of pharmacists, and existing PBRNs were invited to participate in the registry and complete the survey.

INTERVENTION

An association-wide invitation to join the ACCP PBRN was sent to ACCP members who were actively involved in direct patient care or who had access to a patient base for research purposes. Interested pharmacists completed a three-part online survey regarding professional background, practice site, and clinical pharmacy practice.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

A total of 416 members completed the online registry. These pharmacists practice at 263 distinct clinical sites in 43 states. Forty-six percent of the sites were located within a university hospital, and 30% were within a community hospital setting. Of those working in these two hospital settings, 33% and 40%, respectively, practiced within an outpatient clinic. The ACCP PBRN member pharmacists spent an average of 5 half-days providing clinical pharmacy services and saw a median of 30 patients/week. The most common laboratory tests ordered by member pharmacists were metabolic panels, prothrombin times or international normalized ratios, liver function tests, and blood glucose levels. The most frequently managed conditions or disease states were pharmacotherapy and/or polypharmacy, anticoagulation, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Almost two thirds of the pharmacists used an electronic medical record system. Thirty-five percent operated with the use of collaborative practice documents within their sites, whereas 32% had scope of practice agreements. Ninety-five percent did not bill for clinical pharmacy services rendered.

CONCLUSION

The ACCP PBRN is the first national clinical pharmacy PBRN. Its membership has a distinctive profile of primary care and specialty clinical pharmacists who work both within inpatient and outpatient settings. Both internal and external stakeholders are expected to use these ACCP PBRN registry data to support the capabilities and capacity of the ACCP PBRN.