Quality Indicators of Pharmaceutical Care for Integrative Healthcare: A Scoping Review of Indicators Developed Using the Delphi Technique

Abstract

Background. Recently, measuring and benchmarking provision of healthcare services has drawn a considerable attention. This scoping review was conducted to identify, describe, and summarize studies in which the Delphi technique was used to develop quality indicators of pharmaceutical care. The study also aimed to identify activities and services that could be used to capture the impact of pharmacist in integrative medicine. Methods. Databases were searched from inception to February 2020 using key terms that were combined using Boolean operators. Studies were included if they were relevant to development of quality indicators of pharmaceutical care with regard to medications or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities. Full text of the selected studies was imported into EndNote. Studies were screened and data were extracted into a standard extraction form. Results. Data were extracted from 31 studies. Of those, 24 (77.4%) were related to provision of pharmaceutical services relevant to medications and 7 (22.6%) were related to provision of care using CAM modalities. Most of the studies (67.7%) were published in 2010 and beyond. Almost half of the studies (48.4%) originated from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. A total of 42 different activities and services that could be used as quality indicators were identified from the studies included in this review. Activities and services were related to history taking, performing reconciliations, identifying and resolving therapy problems, providing collaborative care, designing care plans, optimal performance, and continuing education. Conclusions. Although there is an increasing interest in improving healthcare delivery, quality indicators of pharmaceutical services and those relevant to CAM provision in healthcare facilities adopting the integrated healthcare paradigm are still limited. Future studies are needed to develop validated quality indicators that could be successfully used in measuring and benchmarking quality of services in integrated healthcare facilities.

Quality Indicators of Pharmaceutical Care in Palestinian Integrative Healthcare Facilities: Findings of a Qualitative Study among Stakeholders

“…Another core list of consensual key performance indicators that can serve in capturing performance of clinical pharmacists while caring for patients in hospitalized patient settings was developed [22]. A recent scoping review identified 42 different pharmaceutical activities and services that can be used as to measure quality of pharmaceutical care for integrative healthcare [24]. e activities and services that were developed using the Delphi technique included taking medication history, medication reconciliations, resolving therapy-related problems, provision of collaborative care, formulating therapeutic plans, optimal performance, and continuing education.…”

Development of Key Performance Indicators for Capturing Impact of Pharmaceutical Care in Palestinian Integrative Healthcare Facilities: A Delphi Consensus Study

“…This study was part of a larger study that was conducted to develop a consensus-based core inventory of KPIs to be used in capturing the impact of pharmaceutical care in healthcare facilities that employ integrative medicine paradigm [ 33 , 34 ]. The present study is being reported in compliance with the Conducting and REporting of Delphi Studies (CREDES) guidelines [ 35 ].…”

“…Activities performed and services provided by pharmacists while caring for patients admitted to or visiting healthcare facilities that employ integrative medicine that potentially can be used as KPIs were collected from the literature into an initial inventory [ 33 ]. The list of activities and services collected from the literature was supplemented by additional activities and services that were provided by 9 CAM practitioners, 8 pharmacists, 2 physicians, 2 nurses, and 1 risk/quality assurance manager who were interviewed using in-depth semistructured qualitative interviews [ 34 ].…”

“…In another study, Fernandes et al developed another 8 KPIs to capture the performance of clinical pharmacists while caring for patients in hospitalized patient settings [ 31 ]. In a recent scoping review, 42 pharmaceutical activities and services were identified as potential KPIs that could be used to benchmark pharmaceutical care in integrative medicine [ 33 ]. These potential KPIs were related to activities like taking the history, reconciliation, resolving drug-related discrepancies, providing direct and collaborative care, development of care plans, improving performance, and continuing education.…”

Designing a Transportation-Strategy Decision-Making Process for a Supply Chain: Case of a Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

“…Also, it is considered to be an effective method for gaining judgments on complex matters where precise information is unavailable [ 87 ]. In addition, the DELPHI method has been widely used to determine consensus in a number of important need areas, especially in the healthcare field [ 88 , 89 , 90 ].…”