Development, content validation and standardization of an adult patient prioritization tool for hospital clinical pharmacy services

Background Patient prioritization is a effective strategy to identify high risk patients for targeted Clinical Pharmacy Service (CPS) in hospital pharmacy. However, there is a paucity of patient prioritization tool to use in clinical practice. Objectives Describe the development, content validation and standardization of an adult patient prioritization tool for hospital CPS named, PrioFarClinH. Methods The tool was developed using a stepwise design multi: Scoping Review to identify prioritization criteria/sub-criteria; Delphi technique to obtain consensus under the identified criteria/sub-criteria; Survey with pharmacists evaluating applicability of the criteria/sub-criteria obtained from Delphi; Definition of criteria/sub-criteria to be included in PrioFarClinH attribution of scores. Content validation was performed by a panel of experts evaluating relevance, feasibility, clarity and adequacy of the score. Content Validity Index (CVI) was calculated. Standardization occurred through a retrospective observational study carried out at 24 and 72 hours and median of the patient's hospital stay. An intragroup norm was performed, determining percentile ranks of the instrument's total scores. Patients with a P90 score were classified with a high level of prioritization for CPS. Results PrioFarClinH is divided into three sections, with prioritization criteria for health issues; therapeutic classes; laboratory parameters. It comprises 51 criteria with specific scores with simple total calculation. None of the criteria presented CVI < 0.78, maintaining the items from the initial version of PrioFarClinH. The scores were adjusted per suggestions from the panel of judges. Data were collected from 393 patients. The P90 percentile in the three hospitalization stages (24 hours, 72 hours, and median) was found, respectively, in the following scores: 18.0, 20.0, and 22.6. Conclusions PrioFarClinH is a comprehensive tool to target and to prioritize adults patients most likely to benefit from CPS. Evidence for adequate content validity was provided. However, further validation of this tool is necessary to establish tool performance.