Indicators for the Selection of Ambulatory Patients Who Warrant Pharmacist Monitoring

The development of indicators to identify ambulatory patients who might benefit from pharmacist monitoring is described. With the assistance of an eight-member panel of ambulatory-care pharmacists, six prognostic indicators were identified: (1) five or more medications in present drug regimen, (2) 12 or more medication doses per day, (3) medication regimen changed four or more times during the past 12 months, (4) more than three concurrent disease states present, (5) history of noncompliance, and (6) presence of drugs that require therapeutic drug monitoring. The charts of patients who had visited the internal medicine, general surgery, pediatric, and obstetric/gynecology clinics during five randomly selected…