Transcript Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee

Pharmacy and Therapeutics
Committee
Drug Formulary
Drug Monographs
Newsletters
Who is the P&T Committee?
• Under the “Medical Staff”
• Made up primarily of physician specialists,
Pharmacy director and clinical
pharmacists, also can be representatives
from nursing, administration, quality
assurance, medical records, laboratory,
etc.
P&T Primary Duties/Functions
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Determine formulary of drugs
Develop/review treatment guidelines & protocols
Establish formulary appeals process
Policies and procedures regarding drug use
Establish strategies/programs to improve patient
compliance with medications
• Quality Assurance activities (DUE, DUR)
• Adverse Drug Reaction reporting
P&T Primary Duties/Functions
cont.
• Provide drug use education programs to
professional staff
• Monitor drug delivery technology
• Monitor legislative and regulatory
developments
• Develop/enforce drug use ethics policies
• Develop policies for investigational drug
use and participation in clinical trials (IRB)
How Do Pharmacists Support
the P&T Committee
• Planning future agendas
– medications
– policies and procedures
– quality assurance
• Gathering data
• Evaluating medications for formulary
adoption or deletion
How do Pharmacists Support
P&T Committee cont..
• Preparing and conducting quality
assurance programs (DUE)
• Preparing policies and procedures
• Communicating information from the P&T
committee to other areas of the institution.
– Verbally
– “Dear Doctor” letter
– Newsletter
Who Requires a formulary
System?
• Hospitals (required by JCAHO)
• Nursing homes
• Health maintenance organizations
(HMO’s)
• State Medicaid for their customers
• Insurance companies (benefits plan)
What are the Goals of a
formulary System?
• To provide a group of high quality drugs for
the particular situation to ensure that drugs
are available for any disease state likely to
be treated and that the drugs chosen are
the most:
– efficacious
– have the fewest side effects
– cost the least
What Mechanisms are in Place to
Restrict Physicians from
prescribing Non-Formulary Drugs?
• Require specific request forms to be filled
out
• Have a waiting period to obtain nonformulary drugs.
• Be financially penalized for use or overuse
of non-formulary drugs (HMO, managed
care groups, insurance companies)
ASHP Guidelines for
Recommendations to the
Formulary
• 1. Added for uncontrolled use by the entire
medical staff.
• 2. Added for monitored use: no restrictions
placed on use, but the drug will be
monitored to determine appropriateness of
use.
ASHP Guidelines cont..
• 3. Added with restrictions; the drug is
added to the formulary, but there are
restrictions on who may prescribe it
and/or how it may be used (specific
indications, certain MD’s only, etc.)
• 4. Conditional use; available for use by
the entire medical staff for a finite period
of time.
• 5. Not added or deleted from formulary.
Drug Newsletters
• Purpose- method to communicate drug
information to medical staff, physicians,
nursing, pharmacy, public, etc.
• Sent from hospital pharmacies, community
pharmacies, nursing homes, drug
companies, pharmacy organizations and
government regulatory bodies.
Steps to Writing a Newsletter
• Define the audience
• Define the goals
• Identify constraints
Tips for good Newsletters
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Make it look appealing
Keep it consistent from issue to issue
Use white space properly
Design a masthead
Keep articles short and easy to read
Do not exceed 2 pages
Give documentation and references
Write clear, concise, complete. Be
positive
Newletter Topics
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Review of drug classes
Adverse drug reactions
Drug usage evaluation
New informational sources
new legal requirements
new services
news from other departments
Newsletter topics cont...
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Calendar of events
Personnel policies
clinical pearls
job related information
pharmacoeconomics
P&T Committee news
productivity information
Professional announcements