Standard Time and Workload of Pharmacists in Medication Reconciliation Service for In-patients, Chiangkham Hospital, Phayao - เวลามาตรฐานและภาระงานของเภสัชกรในการบริการ ความสอดคล้องต่อเนื่องทางยา สำหรับผู้ป่วยใน โรงพยาบาลเชียงคำ จังหวัดพะเยา

Abstract

This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to determine the standard time and
workload of pharmacists carrying out medication reconciliation service at in-patient department,
Chiangkham Hospital and to assess pharmacist manpower required for the service by using work sampling
technique and stopwatch time study. The study was conducted at in-patients department, Chiangkham
hospital, Phayao during July 1 to October 31, 2012. Total of 1,408 patients were included into this
study. The study’s findings demonstrated that the standard times for creating complete medication list,
checking for medication reconciliation, monitoring for the intervention and checking for medication
reconciliation at discharge were 6.11, 4.06, 3.18 and 1.19 minutes, respectively. The total standard
time of pharmacists in providing medication reconciliation service was 14.54 minutes per patient. The
workload of pharmacists for providing medical reconciliation service at in-patient department was
957.5 man-hours per year for a total of 3,951 patients. Therefore, medication reconciliation can be
served at in-patient department by at least 0.56 pharmacist. In the other word, providing medication
reconciliation service at in-patient department, Chiangkham Hospital required less than one pharmacist.
In conclusion, under well-planned system medication reconciliation can be integrated to other pharmaceutical
care services with no need to increase pharmacist manpower. To decrease amount of time spent
in the process, integrated system and multidisciplinary teamwork are required.
Key words: medication reconciliation, inpatient department, standard time, workload of pharmacist