Date of Award

2017

Embargo Period

8-1-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Health Administration

College

College of Health Professions

First Advisor

James S Zoller

Second Advisor

Glen Schumock

Third Advisor

Ann L. Richards

Abstract

Purpose: To establish benchmarks for assessing workload, staffing, and productivity in state psychiatric hospital pharmacy departments, and to compare productivity by bed size. Methods: An electronic survey of state psychiatric hospitals was conducted. Hospitals were categorized based on number of occupied beds. Descriptive statistics using Student’s t-tests, Pearson Chi-Square, and Pearson Correlations were used to characterize the data and compare productivity by bed size. Results: Responses were received from 41 hospitals (35.7%) and benchmarks were established. Respondent hospitals did not differ from non-respondents based on demographic data from the American Hospital Association (AHA) DataViewer. There was a positive correlation between daily census, patient days, expenditures, paid hours and productive hours per week, workload metrics, total pharmacy staff, and occupied bed size (r=0.381-0.991, p<0.05). Over 30% of hospitals reported using no indicators to monitor pharmacy productivity. Productivity ratios differed between Very Small/Small and Medium/Large hospital groups: mean pharmaceutical expenditures per 100 occupied beds and per 1000 patient days (p=0.017 and 0.05 respectively), mean FTEs per 1000 doses dispensed/administered per month and per 100 occupied beds (p=0.042 and 0.026), and mean pharmacist and technician FTEs per 100 occupied beds (p=0.012 and 0.019 respectively). Conclusion: Results of the survey suggest staffing, workload, and productivity metrics to be dependent on bed size, with larger hospitals operating more efficiently than hospitals of lower bed size. Over 30% of hospitals reported using no indicators to monitor pharmacy productivity.

Rights

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