Office of Continuing Education

Home Study

Quality Improvement for Pharmacy Services

The West Virginia University School of Pharmacy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmaceutical education.

Program is free. No CE hours available. This program is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca. - Expires - 3/31/2005

CD-ROM 1:

Objectives: At the conclusion of the program, participants will be able to:

• National Trends in Healthcare Quality Improvement
  1. Discuss leading drivers of quality improvement and implications to pharmacy practice.
  2. Discuss how medications play a role and ultimately how the pharmacists play a role in quality improvement efforts.
• The Need for Quality Improvement in Pharmacy Services
  1. Discuss how often dispensing errors occur.
  2. Describe why dispensing errors occur.
  3. Discuss the impact of errors on public perception and regulation.
• The Principles of Quality Improvement
  1. Define quality control, quality assurance, quality improvement and others words related to the process.
  2. Describe FOCUS-PDCA (Deming Cycle).
  3. List principles of problem identification (includes brainstorming/flowcharting).
  4. Describe how to establish a plan for quality.
• Enhancing the Commitment of Pharmacy Personnel to Quality Improvement
  1. Discuss the role of personal responsibility in quality improvement.
  2. Delineate reasons for lack of health care provider participation in quality improvement.
  3. Describe ways for building effective quality teams.
  4. Discuss the impact of enhanced commitment on the quality improvement process.
• Building the Plan Quality
  1. Simulated team discussion to evaluate a current dispensing process.
  2. Identify opportunities for improvement.
• Tool Chest
  1. Self-assessment form for pharmacy quality improvement program.
  2. Medication error risk-assessment tools.
  3. Error reporting programs.
  4. Sample performance indicators.
  5. Sample error tracking forms and reports.
  6. Sample Plan for Quality.
  7. List of readings about quality improvement/error reduction.
  8. Other Healthcare Quality weblinks.

CD-ROM 2:

Objectives: At the conclusion of the program, participants will be able to:

• Case Study: Implementing a Quality Improvement Program in a Community Pharmacy
  1. Discusses methods for documenting errors, communicating with patients regarding an error and dealing with personnel involved in an error.
• Basic Guidelines for Preventing Medication Errors
  1. Discuss the typical causes of medication errors.
  2. Describe actions to prevent medication errors.
• Assessing and Improving the Plan for Quality
  1. Discuss Donabedian’s definition of quality assessment (structure-process-outcome).
  2. Define performance indicators.
  3. Describe the process for creating indicators.
  4. Describe methods to efficiently collect and analyze indicator data.
  5. Discuss the use of indicator data in quality improvement.
• Communicating About Problems with Drug Therapy
  1. Discuss how one should communicate with patients regarding errors.
  2. Discuss how to deal with personnel involved in an error.
• Documenting Quality-Related Events
  1. Discuss the keys to documentation of quality-related events.
  2. Discuss the issue of discovery of documentation.
• Tool Chest
  1. Self-assessment form for pharmacy quality improvement program.
  2. Medication error risk-assessment tools.
  3. Error reporting programs.
  4. Sample performance indicators.
  5. Sample error tracking forms and reports.
  6. Sample Plan for Quality.
  7. List of readings about quality improvement/error reduction.
  8. Other Healthcare Quality weblinks.

For ordering information, visit the CE Home Study page.