Pharmacy Services in Hospitals Offering Clinical Clerkships

As part of an ongoing multi-year project investigating hospital-based clinical pharmacy services, the variation in clinical pharmacy services among hospitals with various teaching affiliations was studied. Survey documents, completed by the director of pharmacy, were completed for 1597 hospitals, representing 43 percent of the nation’s acute care general medical surgical hospitals. Hospitals were grouped according to their affiliation with colleges of pharmacy degree programs and other health care teaching programs. Clear differences were observed in the types of clinical pharmacy services among: PharmD affiliated hospitals, hospitals affiliated with BS pharmacy programs only, hospitals affiliated with nonpharmacy teaching programs, and hospitals without any involvement in health care education. Both BS and PharmD program affiliated hospitals were most likely to be nonprofit nongovernment hospitals. Only 10 percent of college of pharmacy affiliated hospitals were for-profit institutions. PharmD programs had a greater mix of small, medium and large-sized affiliated hospitals; whereas BS pharmacy programs were commonly affiliated with small and medium-sized hospitals. Hospitals affiliated with PharmD programs cared for more severely ill patients than hospitals affiliated with BS pharmacy programs (higher Health Care Finance Administration case mix index). Results suggest that the clinical pharmacy services offered in hospitals vary significantly by several factors r elated to teaching affiliation; including both the academic affiliation and the type of pharmacy degree program.