I haven’t had a chance to watch the webinar your mentioned, but I will definitely take a look at it tonight.

The longer I work in hospital pharmacy, the more surprised I am that more directors chose not to engage pharmacists at the highest clinical level. It’s a real problem. You analysis about pharmacists clinical work equating to saved lives and money is right on. The only problem is convincing high level executives that the numbers are accurate. We need groups like ASHP, ACCP, etc. to push, and I mean hard. It certainly won’t be easy to change the culture in which pharmacy is viewed.

Thanks for stopping by and for the information.

Jerry

I VERY much agree with you here. Paragraph three rings so true. I, as you, am in a different practice environment now, but my 15 years in clinical care felt very much like this.

The practice model makes all the difference. I hope you had a chance to watch the webinar Pharmacy OneSource put on yesterday. (If you missed it, you can find links to a recorded version at http://sentri7.com/resources/default.aspx as well as slides) Steve Pickette, Systems Clinical Manager for Providence outlined how he has implemented a standard clinical practice model in 27 hospital on the west coast. It is a practice model that ensures pharmacists are fully engaged in clinical activities. Bottom line: in the early sites where the practice model has been fully integrated they have witnessed reductions in overall drug budget expenses – without exception. This in the face of overall inflation in drug costs around the country.

Pharmacy is unique in that the more focus and human resource time put into clinical work, the more lives and dollars are saved. Clinical Decision Support tools facilitate this by taking the routine “If on Drug A and Lab value Y is greater than X, intervene” analysis and streamlining it. Leaves the human brain open to do the more complex clinical work it was designed to do.

Kudos on a great article.

~charles
fiverights.blogspot.com