Encuesta Nacional de la SEFH-2019: características generales, recursos humanos, materiales y sistemas de información en los Servicios de Farmacia Hospitalaria en España

OBJECTIVE To publicize the results regarding the general characteristics, human resources, materials and information systems of Spanish hospital pharmacy  departments arising from SEFH's 2019 Survey on the Situation of Spanish  Hospital Pharmacy Departments. METHOD An online questionnaire was sent to the heads of the 368 hospital pharmacy departments affiliated to SEFH. The questionnaire included 77 questions grouped into 8 dimensions. The information was collected between  March and September 2019. RESULTS The overall response rate was 54.3%. Sixty-nine percent of hospitals  were public and the most commonly reported hospital size was 101-250 beds.  Nine percent of responding hospitals remained open round the clock and 57.5%  did not offer a continued care service. A total of 41.9% of hospitals dispensed  medications to outpatients in the  afternoon and 52.7% of hospital pharmacy departments were accredited to some quality standard. The mean number of  specialist pharmacists per pharmacy Department was 5.34 (SD: 6.22); 47% of  pharmacists spent at least half their working day in a clinical unit. Hospital  pharmacy departments had a mean of 0.3 (SD: 0.7) or 0:9 (SD: 1.4) automated storage and dispensing carousels, depending on whether they were horizontal or vertical, respectively. A total of 16.1% of beds were assisted by automated  dispensing systems, a figure that reached 33.5% in hospitals with more than  1,000 beds. Three percent of hospital pharmacy departments had a robotized  system for compounding chemotherapy medications and 24.8% had a raceability and safety system. Smart infusion pumps were used by 21.4% of hospitals.  Electronic prescriptions were implemented in 98.8% of hospitals for inpatients  and in 62% for outpatients. CONCLUSIONS Spanish hospital pharmacy departments face a shortage of  specialist pharmacists, although incorporation of such professionals to clinical  units has doubled in the last few years. There has been an increase in the level  of automation of the logistic processes involved in medication dispensing, but  there is still significant room for improvement in the area of robotized dispensing and compounding traceability systems. This data could play an invaluable role in the design of future action plans.