Background To ensure implementation of rational pharmacotherapy, the Regional Drug and Therapeutics Committee (RDTC) in Zealand Region develops hospital drug formularies (HDFs). The Hospital Pharmacy is responsible for implementing the HDFs in hospital wards.

Zealand Region has 20 clinical pharmacists and 47 pharmaconomists based at 6 locations. The challenge is to obtain an overview of HDFs and ensure consistent communication.

Purpose To develop a regional database that:

• compiles information and provide an overview of HDFs

• shares knowledge easily ensures consistent communication

Materials and methods Three existing local databases were consolidated into one and subsequently divided into ATC codes. All drugs included in the database were considered by the RDTC.

The consolidated database was validated and qualified by specialist RDTC groups comprised of physicians and clinical pharmacists, and evaluated retrospectively on number of entries per day by pharmacists and pharmaconomists respectively.

Results One database was established that is used by all clinical pharmacists and pharmaconomists.

The database contains information about individual drugs such as generic name, strength, form, indications and HDFs including arguments for use in communication with the wards.

The database provides for easy knowledge sharing, creates an overview of HDFs and ensures consistent answers to questions from the wards. The database is dynamic, simple to use and easy to update. It is only necessary to update changes in one document.

On average, the database is used 198 times a day by 35 pharmaconomists and 11 times a day by 12 clinical pharmacists. The pharmaconomists consult the database by themselves, which reduces the numbers of calls to clinical pharmacists.

Conclusions One regional database compiling and sharing all information on the HDFs was developed and has shown to be an efficient tool that aids communication to the wards. The database is on average used 209 times a day and simplifies the daily work.

No conflict of interest.