Quality assurance program for a drug information center.

Development of a quality assurance (QA) program for a drug information center (DIC) at a large community teaching hospital is described. Criteria were written for each activity performed by the DIC. An assessment form was devised that included instructions for evaluating the service with respect to each criterion. New procedures had to be implemented before some DIC activities could be assessed (e.g., a survey of the readership of the nursing newsletter, and a peer review program for evaluating responses to drug information questions). Initial assessment results revealed that failure to meet the practice criteria was attributable to inadequacies in the instructions to the evaluator and incomplete documentation by the DIC providers. After evaluation and revision of the criteria, the program was formally included in the overall pharmacy department QA program.