TASK-ANALYSIS OF HOME CARE PHARMACY

The demographics of home care pharmacists and the frequency and percei ved importance of home care pharmacy tasks were studied. Two questionn aires were mailed in August 1994 to each of 1420 sites that provide ho me care pharmacy services. Home care pharmacists were asked to provide information on themselves and their companies and to rate 47 home car e pharmacy tasks (administrative, clinical, distributive, and miscella neous) on how often they are performed as part of the job and how esse ntial they are for successful job performance. Of the 2840 surveys mai led to the 1420 sites, questionnaires for 87 sites were not deliverabl e, leaving an adjusted gross sample of 1333 sites. A total of 393 usab le questionnaires were received from 326 sites (net site response rate , 24.5%). Respondents tended to be male, have a B.S. degree only, and have more than six years' home care experience. The most commonly iden tified type of employer was an independent company. Some 34% of respon dents said their company had only 1 site; another 33% stated more than 50 sites. Forty-three percent of locations had 2 pharmacist full-time equivalents. Distributive tasks had the highest frequency scores; cli nical tasks were performed second most frequently. Distributive and cl inical tasks also received high importance scores. The data suggest th at, despite other demands on their time, home care pharmacists give co nsiderable attention to tasks consistent with pharmaceutical care. A s urvey of home care pharmacists provided baseline information on demogr aphics and the frequency and perceived importance of specific tasks.