Evaluation of a clinical decision aid and training program on the quality of pharmacists' prospective drug utilization review activities

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a checklist decision aid and training program on pharmacists' prospective drug utilization review (DUR). The study utilized a convenience sample of 176 pharmacists practicing in Arizona, Illinois, Iowa and Tennessee, and was organized as a pretest-posttest design. During pretest, the convenience sample of 176 pharmacists identified medication-related problems in patient cases using their normal DUR procedures. Level 1 intervention provided pharmacists with a decision aid with which to assess a second series of cases. Level 2 intervention added a DUR training program which pharmacists completed prior to assessing a third series of cases. The rate of correctly identified medication-related problems showed significant increases from the pretest to Level 1 intervention, and from the pretest to Level 2 intervention. Pharmacists' reached a higher level of agreement with expert evaluators concerning whether the prescriptions should have been dispensed at Level 2.