TOP PROJECT WINNER: SUSTAINABILITY AND EFFICIENCY

Tom McFarlane, Lauren Hutton, Rozhannaa Sothilingam, Olavo Fernandes, and Sherilyn Houle
University of Waterloo, University Health Network, Extend Pharmacy

Tom McFarlane, Lauren Hutton, Rozhannaa Sothilingam, Olavo Fernandes, and Sherilyn Houle were awarded a Top Project HOPE Award for their project, ‘What Are The Appropriate National Clinical Pharmacy Key Performance Indicators For Ambulatory Oncology Pharmacists (AOcpKPI) ?‘.

Consensus is lacking on a means of tracking and measuring the impact of ambulatory oncology pharmacy services. Key performance indicators (KPIs), which are defined as quantifiable measures used to track the quality of various processes while determining whether institutional goals are being met, are often used in health care for this purpose. Our aim was to develop evidence-based clinical pharmacy KPIs for ambulatory oncology settings (AOcpKPIs).

The primary objectives of this initiative were to identify evidence-based pharmacist interventions linked to improved patient outcomes, and generate a list of consensus candidate AOcpKPIs from these interventions. This would allow for improved patient quality of care and professional accountability of oncology pharmacy services, while ensuring oncology pharmacists are meeting standards of practice, and driving practice toward evidence-based outcomes in the literature. The AOcpKPIs would also allow for benchmarking within and between organizations and for tracking of progress toward institutional goals.

Design: A systematic, modified Delphi process was employed to reach consensus on AOcpKPIs. Following an environmental scan of current oncology pharmacy practices across Canada, a literature review identified critical activities linked to patient-centered outcomes. A panel of oncology pharmacists engaged in three Delphi rounds and a virtual live meeting, assessing and refining candidate AOcpKPIs based on predefined criteria. A total of 17 candidate AOcpKPIs were evaluated.

Results: Consensus was achieved on 14 AOcpKPIs. These AOcpKPIs reflect critical pharmacist activities including clinical order review, patient education, medication adherence assessment, and management of drug therapy problems. This suite of AOcpKPIs provides a standardized approach for evaluating oncology pharmacist activities in ambulatory care, facilitating benchmarking and supporting evidence-based improvements in patient outcomes.