WORK ACTIVITIES OF PHARMACY TEAMS WITH DRUG DISTRIBUTION AND CLINICALRESPONSIBILITIES

The time spent by satellite pharmacists and technicians on various act ivities was measured by using work sampling to evaluate the pharmacist s' use of time for patient care. Between December 1992 and April 1993, pharmacists and technicians on satellite pharmacy teams at a tertiary care teaching hospital reported their work activities on forms. A tot al of 11,485 observations of pharmacist work activities and 7,626 obse rvations of technician work activities were made. Pharmacists on teams with fewer support staff members spent less time on patient care-rela ted work activities, and vice versa. As measured by an institution-spe cific index, the efficiency with which pharmacists used the available work time for patient care ranged from 60% to 83% for the various team s (100% would mean that pharmacists spent all their work time on patie nt care tasks). Changes were made in technician staffing that enabled the pharmacists to devote more time to patient care. Measuring the tim e pharmacists and technicians spent on various work activities provide d a means of identifying and correcting organizational inefficiencies in order to give the pharmacists more time for patient care.