PHARMACY SERVICES IN HOSPITALS OFFERING CLINICAL CLERKSHIPS

As part of an ongoing multi-year project investigating hospital-based clinical pharmacy services, the variation in clinical pharmacy service s among hospitals with various teaching affiliations was studied. Surv ey documents, completed by the director of pharmacy, were completed fo r 1597 hospitals, representing 43 percent of the nation's acute care g eneral medical surgical hospitals. Hospitals were grouped according to their affiliation with colleges of pharmacy degree programs and other health care teaching programs. Clear differences were observed in the types of clinical pharmacy services among: PharmD affiliated hospital s, hospitals affiliated with BS pharmacy programs only, hospitals affi liated with nonpharmacy teaching programs, and hospitals without any i nvolvement in health care education. Both BS and PharmD program affili ated hospitals were most likely to be nonprofit nongovernment hospital s. Only 10 percent of college of pharmacy affiliated hospitals were fo r-profit institutions. PharmD programs had a greater mix of small, med ium and large-sized affiliated hospitals; whereas BS pharmacy programs were commonly affiliated with small and medium-sized hospitals. Hospi tals affiliated with PharmD programs cared for more severely ill patie nts than hospitals affiliated with BS pharmacy programs (higher Health Care Finance Administration case mix index). Results suggest that the clinical pharmacy services offered in hospitals vary significantly by several factors related to teaching affiliation; including both the a cademic affiliation and the type of pharmacy degree program.