Development of service standards and manpower calculation criteria for hospital clinical pharmacies in South Korea: a survey-based study

Background: After the revision of the Korean Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, the certification of specialized pharmacists is scheduled to be legally recognized in 2023. Considering that the specialized pharmacist certification was developed based on the working model of hospital clinical pharmacists, standards for clinical pharmacists in hospital and appropriate manpower calculation are needed. Aim: To develop practical standards for clinical pharmacists and to present the standards for calculating the level of manpower based on the actual workload survey. Method: In order to develop clinical pharmacy services standards, literature review was performed. To classify essential tasks, a modified Delphi study was performed in a tertiary hospital. Based on this, manpower calculation was performed through a multi-center survey for pharmacists in hospitals with more than 1,000 beds. The survey respondents were working in one out of four fields: pediatrics, organ transplantation, oncology, and critical care. Results: Clinical pharmacy services were classified into 4 types: medication therapy management, medication education, medication use evaluation, and multidisciplinary team activities. Essential tasks accounted for 93% of the total tasks for clinical pharmacy services. The required full-time equivalent (FTE) through workload calculation was 2.5±1.9 on average for each field, while the FTE allocated to actual practice was 2.1±1.6. Conclusion: An agreement was reached on the essential work of clinical pharmacy services. However, the FTE of clinical pharmacists in actual practice was insufficient compared to the required amount. In order to establish and expand clinical pharmacy services in hospital, it is necessary to ensure manpower for essential tasks.