The development of a pharmacist-led intravenous-to-oral antibiotic
switching therapy notification system in Khon Kaen Hospital
Abstract
Objective: This research was to develop a pharmacist-led
intravenous-to-oral antibiotic switching therapy notification system
through the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) concept. Method: The study was a
three-step action research. First, we performed a situation analysis and
developed a system with the PDSA concept. Third, we evaluated the
outcome before and after applying the system in two target groups: group
1 (physicians in Khon Kaen Hospital involved in the system development)
and group 2 (pneumonic patients admitted in two pediatric wards). The
system’s development was divided into two phases. In phase I, data was
collected from January to March 2020 before developing. In phase II,
after the system had been developed, data from September to November
2020 was collected. The development of the system was evaluated using
value-stream mapping (VSM), time measurement, the rate of switching
intravenous to oral, length of intravenous therapy, and length of stay
display using descriptive statistics (percentages). Results: Developing
the model system by increasing access to essential information and
integrating a drug information service technology on dispensing helped
reduce total process time from 95 minutes to 88 minutes and reduced
total lead time from 175 to 159 minutes before and after applying the
system. The overall time reduction was 16 minutes, which increased the
activity ratio between total lead time and process time from 54.28% to
55.34%. The development system also reduced the length of intravenous
therapy and length of stay. Conclusion: The PDSA concept allowed
step-by-step analysis, and identification of areas for improvement on
the workflow and dataflow. Integrating a drug information service
technology to rapidly screen patients who pass the criteria can help
reduce the time-consuming process. This system can be used to develop a
localized system and extend to the organization to reflect areas that
need to be improved, suggested in the form of policies.