ArticleThe Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy2024
Prioritizing Quality over Quantity: Defining Optimal Pharmacist-to-Patient Ratios to Ensure Comprehensive Direct Patient Care in a Medical or Surgical Unit.
Article in The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- A multi-site evaluation of clinical pharmacist time, motion, interventions and interruptions.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Article
- Further Defining Optimal Pharmacist-to-Patient Ratios to Ensure Comprehensive Direct Patient Care in Medical and Surgical Units across British Columbia Hospitals.The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy · 2025Article
- Determining Adequate Pharmacist Staffing in Hospitals to Optimize Patient Care.The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The expanding scope of practice of hospital pharmacists has contributed to improvements in patient care; however, workload remains a barrier to the provision of optimal pharmaceutical care. Established ratios to guide clinical pharmacy staffing on medical and surgical units are lacking in Canada. Objectives: To determine the pharmacist-to-patient ratio that allows for provision of comprehensive pharmaceutical care to each patient on a medical or surgical unit and to determine which comprehensive care tasks can be delivered in settings where staffing is limited. Methods: A multiphase study was conducted in 6 hospitals. First, a modified Delphi study was conducted to define and prioritize the elements of comprehensive pharmaceutical care. Next, a work sampling study was conducted to establish the frequency of each task and the time required for completion. Finally, a workforce calculator was used to determine pharmacy staffing ratios. Results: Ten pharmacists participated in the modified Delphi study, and 31 participated in the work sampling study. A total of 15 comprehensive care tasks were identified, 7 of which were categorized as tasks to prioritize in settings where staffing is limited. The optimal staffing ratios were 1 pharmacist to 13 patients in internal medicine teaching units, 1 pharmacist to 26 patients in hospitalist or internal medicine nonteaching units, and 1 pharmacist to 14 patients in surgical units. Conclusions: The optimal staffing ratios determined in this study should enable pharmacists to provide comprehensive care to each patient. Implementing these staffing ratios could increase the consistency of clinical pharmacy services, improve patient outcomes, and improve pharmacists' work satisfaction. Further research is required to validate these ratios in a variety of settings.
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