Survey of pharmacotherapy monitoring in Canadian acute care hospitals.

A survey questionnaire was sent to all hospitals in Canada that had 100 or more acute care beds. Objectives were to determine the current level and extent of pharmacist monitoring and prescriber acceptance of recommendations with respect to patient drug therapy. Three levels of patient drug therapy monitoring were identified, as were two extended forms of service. The response rate was 52.0 percent (130/250). A majority (92.3 percent) of respondents monitor drug therapy from the pharmacy, and only 6.2 percent provide monitoring service on patient wards. Among the respondents, 75.4 percent reviewed all (more than 90 percent) medication orders before the drug was dispensed for the patients. Of the respondents, 32.3 percent provided pharmacokinetic monitoring and 29.9 percent provided proactive pharmacist interventions via rounding with physicians. Higher levels of monitoring were associated with higher levels of pharmacy staffing. The acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations by prescribers was more than 80 percent.