Clinical pharmacy services and hospital mortality rates

We evaluated the associations between clinical pharmacy services and mortal ity rates in 1029 United States hospitals. A data base was constructed from Medicare mortality rates from the Health Care Financing Administration and the National Clinical Pharmacy Services data base. A multivariate regressi on analysis, controlling for severity of illness, was employed to determine the associations. Four clinical pharmacy services were associated with low er mortality rates: clinical research (p<0.0001), drug information (p=0.043 ), drug admission histories (p=0.005), and participation on a cardiopulmona ry resuscitation (CPR) team (p=0.039). The actual number of deaths (lower) associated with the presence of these four services were clinical research 21,125 deaths in 108 hospitals, drug information 10,463 deaths in 237 hospi tals, drug admission histories 3843 deaths in 30 hospitals, and CPR team pa rticipation 5047 deaths in 282 hospitals. This is the first study to indica te that both centrally based and patient-specific clinical pharmacy service s are associated with reduced hospital mortality rates. This suggests that these services save a significant number of lives in our nation's hospitals .