How to assemble a patient-centered pharmacy QI program.

The QI program is patient driven. The question "How does this monitoring affect the patient?" is central to decisions on designing indicators. Time spent on the various levels of quality assessment in the Pharmacy QI Committee is proportional to patient impact. Personnel time devoted to concurrent review of dosing and drug interaction overrides, drug information response accuracy, and therapeutic drug monitoring reflects the importance the Pharmacy Department places on maintaining a drug therapy safety net. The patient is central to the pharmacy QI program. The spirit of the Joint Commission's standards is met; acceptable documentation completes the requirements.