CAPABILITY OF HOSPITAL COMPUTER-SYSTEMS IN PERFORMING DRUG-USE EVALUATIONS AND ADVERSE DRUG EVENT MONITORING

A survey to determine the extent of computerization in key areas of ho spitals, the information being collected in the databases, and the cap abilities of the computer systems for performing adverse drug event mo nitoring and drug-use evaluations was conducted. The questionnaire was distributed to clinical pharmacists in the 500 hospitals composing th e Drug Surveillance Network. In the majority of the 166 responding hos pitals (>85%), the pharmacy department, clinical chemistry and hematol ogy laboratories, patient admissions, and microbiology laboratory were computerized for data acquisition and management. The medical records and purchasing departments were computerized in a smaller proportion of hospitals (75% and 74%, respectively). In the majority of hospitals with a computerized pharmacy department (>78%), there was ready acces s to computer databases in other departments, but simultaneous queryin g of multiple databases was possible in only 30%. Patients could be id entified according to diagnosis in 82% of the hospitals and according to medication received in 83%. More than 85% of responding hospitals h ad implemented spontaneous reporting systems for the identification of adverse drug events. Computers are widely used in hospitals participa ting in the Drug Surveillance Network, but a substantial effort is nec essary to make these resources more useful and to standardize processe s so that data may be pooled across institutions to deal with importan t public health concerns.