Building Bridges between Pharmacists and Physicians: An Exploratory Investigation via Field, Usability Studies & Control Task Analysis To Enhance Pharmacy Management System Requirements

Abstract

Miscommunication between healthcare professionals can impact patient care and is costly. The information systems used in pharmacies and hospitals can contribute to this miscommunication. The present research is an initial attempt to investigate the reasons leading to lack of communication between pharmacists and physicians. Twenty-five pharmacists were interviewed to understand how pharmacists use pharmacy management systems (PMS), as well as to explore why communication issues may occur between prescribers and pharmacists. The field study data was transcribed and interview results were organized into three categories. Next, a human factors analysis was completed to understand pharmacists’ needs and challenges with the current PMSs and finally Control Task Analysis was performed to discover weaknesses in the information systems. After discovering the usability issues with PMSs and reasons for miscommunication, mock ups were designed for a decision aid tool called Communication Summary. The intent of the Communication Summary is to enhance pharmacists’ workflow and their communication with prescribers. The mock ups were evaluated in a simulated pharmacy management task by senior pharmacy students. The results suggested that more information on pharmacist-prescriber communication may help in pharmacy management.