OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to measure time spent, based on type of activity, by hospital staff pharmacists in a setting utilizing computerized provider order entry (CPOE) and a setting in which CPOE was not utilized. Then, using the data collected, complete a comparative analysis of productivity and time usage between CPOE and non-CPOE settings.  METHODS: Staff pharmacists were observed in two community teaching hospitals within the same healthcare system in Houston, TX – one CPOE (252 beds) and one non-CPOE (274 beds). A pre-validated instrument was used to record 37 different pharmacist tasks which were sorted into six different activity categories.  Time spent by pharmacists on different activity categories were compared between the CPOE and non-CPOE settings. The Wilcoxon Two-Sample Test was used to test the significance of difference between the two samples for each of the six activity categories. Data analysis was completed using SAS version 9.3, with significance set at 0.05.   RESULTS: A total of 77 hours of data were collected for each the CPOE pharmacy setting and for the non-CPOE pharmacy setting. The amount of time spent by pharmacists at the different settings were (mean number of minutes per hour ± SD CPOE, non-CPOE, p-value): order entry (17.6 ± 10.7, 29.6 ± 11.3, p<0.05); order verification (14.0 ± 8.6, 0.9 ± 1.8, p<0.05); distributive tasks (16.0 ± 8.3, 13.8 ± 10.0, p<0.05); clinical (5.0 ± 4.2, 6.6± 6.4, p=0.41); administrative (5.4 ± 5.9, 5.6 ± 6.8, p=0.83); and miscellaneous (2.0 ± 2.9, 3.6 ± 4.3, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: At the CPOE pharmacy less time was spent on order entry and more time was spent on order verification and distributive tasks. The presence of a CPOE system could have a dramatic effect on pharmacist workflow productivity and time spent on certain activities.