Documenting the value of pharmacist interventions.

The objectives of this study were to measure the incidence and types of pharmacist interventions performed in a community setting in two rural Texas counties; to assign some type of economic value to their services; and to compare these results with those of a previous study of interventions documented by pharmacy student externs and their preceptors. Pharmacists at four pharmacies in two Texas counties agreed to document their interventions on the next 1,500 new prescription orders brought to each pharmacy. The pharmacists first viewed a videotape training program and were instructed on the use of the Pharmacist Intervention Report. Each documented intervention was evaluated independently by a physician and a clinical pharmacist. The dollar value assigned to each of the pharmacists' interventions was the estimated direct cost of medical care avoided through the pharmacist's intervention to correct a prescribing problem. There were 47 interventions documented, representing 0.78% of the 6,000 prescription orders reviewed. The estimated value added by the interventions totaled about $20,000, or about $3.50 per prescription processed.