Community Pharmacy Managers' Perception of Computerized Drug—Drug Interaction Alerts

To examine community pharmacists' attitudes toward computerized drug—drug interaction (DDI) alerts and identify factors associated with more favorable perceptions of these alerts. Cross-sectional postal survey. 18 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States. 3,000 community pharmacy managers. 34-item survey instrument designed to collect data about the pharmacy including demographics, workload issues, handling of DDIs, and pharmacists' attitudes toward computerized DDI alerts. Responses to items concerning community pharmacy managers' attitudes toward DDI alerts and factors associated with more favorable attitudes toward these alerts. A total of 736 usable surveys were returned (25.3% response rate). Pharmacy managers generally disagreed that DDI alerts were a waste of time (mean ± SD, 2.1 ± 1.1 on a scale of 1, strongly disagree, to 6, strongly agree). However, they were not completely confident that their computer systems provided them with meaningful DDI alerts (mean ± SD, 4.5 ± 1.2). They were confident in their ability to identify DDIs (mean ± SD, 4.9 ± 0.9) and discuss DDIs with physicians (mean ± SD, 5.2 ± 0.7). Pharmacy software that provided detailed DDI information as well as the ability to customize DDI alerts were associated with more favorable perceptions of DDI alerts. Despite being presented with a large proportion of clinically unimportant alerts, community pharmacy managers did not believe DDI alerts were meaningless or a waste of time. Incorporation of features that streamline DDI alerts may improve their effectiveness in community pharmacy practice.