The identification of criteria which may promote consistent documentation of clinical pharmacy activities

In 1944, Professor L. Wait Rising proposed the concept of clinical pharmacy as an educational tool for undergraduate students in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Washington. The concept of pharmacists practicing in the patient care area was widely accepted and promoted in the 1960s and 1970s in conjunction with the advent of drug information services and unit-dose drug distribution systems. Since that time the scope of clinical pharmacy practice has broadened to include provision of services to a variety of patient populations. With the apparenet success of these services in many settings, it has been a goal of many hospital directors of pharmacy services to develop and implement clinical pharmacy services. Yet this goal has been relatively slowly inconsistently achieved. A 1982 survey of hospital pharmaceutical services across the United States revealed that only 11% of hospital departments of pharmacy service provided at least three of the surveyed clinical services, lending evidence to support the slow and inconsistent development of these services. The objective of the is study was to identify criteria which may promote consistent documentation of clinical pharmacy services.