Pharmacy workload benchmarking: Establishing a health-system outpatient infusion productivity metric:

Background and objectivesCurrent productivity assessment models lack the ability to measure the quality of pharmacy services through workload validation. The goal of our efforts was to create a model to more accurately assess workload at multiple outpatient infusion centers.MethodCurrent procedural terminology codes were identified as representative of the key drivers of pharmacy workload. Fourteen current procedural terminology codes representing medication orders were selected and categorized into eight distinctive groups associated with varying amounts of pharmacy workload. A three-month average of current procedural terminology volumes were calculated and used to create a workload baseline.ResultsOur study found a usable productivity assessment and coefficient to compare relevant clinical workload across outpatient oncology sites. The current procedural terminology codes were readily retrievable from our system electronic medical record. By assigning activities, e.g. clinical review, verification, bar...