Clinical Pharmacy Key Performance Indicators (cpKPIs)
A cpKPI is a Clinical Pharmacy Key Performance Indicator. A Clinical Pharmacy Key Performance Indicator (cpKPI) is a quantifiable measure of clinical pharmacy care provided by pharmacists. These activities are aimed at improving patient care and advancing pharmacy practice.
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A cpKPI should fulfill the following criteria: reflect a desired quality of practice, link to direct patient care, be supported by evidence of an impact on meaningful patient outcomes, be pharmacy- or pharmacist-sensitive, and be feasible to measure.
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What is a cpKPI?
Measuring cpKPIs can be useful in advancing clinical pharmacy practice to improve the quality of patient care. Furthermore, implementation of cpKPIs in the hospital setting is intended to elevate professional accountability and transparency, define minimum standards and permit benchmarking within and between organizations. Collecting KPI data over time allows for monitoring, decision-making and quality improvement.
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Why are cpKPIs important?
cpKPI care activities performed by pharmacists [i.e. patient education, medication management (pharmaceutical care) and medication reconciliation] have been shown to improve patient outcomes. This includes decreasing the rate of hospital readmission. The measurement and reporting of cpKPIs can support pharmacists to target and prioritize these important clinical pharmacy services while caring for patients.
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How do cpKPIs impact your health?
The 8 Canadian consensus cpKPIs are listed below, along with their descriptions.
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Medication reconciliation on admission
Proportion of patients who receive documented admission medication reconciliation, as well as resolution of identified discrepancies, performed by a pharmacist
Pharmaceutical care plan
Proportion of patients for whom pharmacists have developed and initiated a pharmaceutical care plan
Drug therapy problems
Number of drug therapy problems addressed by a pharmacist per admission
Interprofessional patient care rounds
Proportion of patients for whom pharmacists participate in interprofessional patient care rounds to improve medication management
Patient education during hospital stay
Proportion of patients who receive education from a pharmacist about their disease(s) and medications(s) during their hospital stay
Patient education at discharge
Proportion of patients who receive medication education by a pharmacist at discharge
Medication reconciliation at discharge
Proportion of patients who receive documented discharge medication reconciliation and resolution of identified discrepancies by a pharmacist
Bundled patient care interventions
Proportion of patients who receive comprehensive direct patient care from a pharmacist working in collaboration with the health care team
What are the 8 Canadian consensus cpKPIs?
These cpKPIs were selected because they are linked with improvements in patient outcomes, such as decreasing the rate of readmission.
Why were these cpKPIs selected?
These cpKPIs were selected because they are linked with improvements in patient outcomes, such as decreasing the rate of hospital readmission.
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Why were these processes of care and interventions selected as cpKPIs?
These cpKPIs for hospital pharmacists were developed by a Canadian cpKPI Collaborative working group. The group consists of front-line clinical pharmacists and hospital pharmacy leaders from across Canada.
The group refined a list of 137 crude candidate clinical pharmacy metrics by applying the cpKPI consensus definition and 11 ideal attributes criteria (“Slavik 11”), producing a final inventory of 26 candidate cpKPIs. These 26 candidate cpKPIs were evaluated using a national, systematic and evidence-informed consensus process (modified Delphi process).This work led to the selection of the final 8 national consensus cpKPIs.
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How were these cpKPIs selected?
Implementing, measuring, and reporting cpKPIs have many advantages.
For pharmacists, a defined list of cpKPIs can serve as a basis for prioritizing patient care activities.
For leadership, cpKPI data can be used to demonstrate practitioner value, provide metrics for evaluating improvement initiatives and inform performance evaluation.
For patients, information on cpKPI measurements can demonstrate accountability and illustrate the impact of pharmacists on patient care.
As a whole, cpKPIs contribute to improved patient care and advance the profession of hospital pharmacy.
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How can cpKPIs help you?
As a patient, you can talk to your local hospital pharmacist about cpKPIs and the importance of implementing them for patient care.
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As a hospital pharmacist, you can talk to your hospital administration about becoming a cpKPI partner and monitoring cpKPIs.
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As a peer healthcare professional, such as a physician or nurse, you can support your hospital pharmacist colleagues in their efforts to improve clinical pharmacy services and patient care. You can talk to local hospital pharmacists about becoming a cpKPI partner and monitoring cpKPIs.
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What can you do to help?
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Fernandes O, Knowledge Mobilization Kit
https://cshp.ca/sites/default/files/files/CSPH-Can-Concensus-cpKPI-Knowledge-Mobilization-Guide.pdf