Pharmacy
Scope of Services
Pharmacy services are patient-centered and are directed toward optimal patient care outcomes, health promotion, and disease prevention. Pharmacy services purpose is to assure efficacious, safe, and cost- effective drug therapy and appropriate outcomes in the use of drugs and medicines in the communities served.
Outpatient Services: Medical history review, interviewing patients for medication history, filling of prescriptions, patient counseling/education including food/nutrient interactions, cytotoxic IV preparation, distribution of medications to village and subregional clinics, drug information.
Inpatient Services: Preparation of sterile products (IV admixtures, piggybacks, syringes), medication histories, monitoring of drug therapy, drug information, discharge counseling/education on medications including food/nutrient interactions.
Drug Information/Education: Provided by a licensed pharmacist for patients and health care providers.
Personnel/Administration & Management: Recruitment and retention, staff development, development of department budget, maintains appropriate records for controlled substances, personnel management, scheduling, planning.
Supply and Distribution: Procurement of needed supplies from various vendors; distribution of medications to nursing units and clinics, vaccines to villages and clinics, prepackaging of medications and monitoring drug recalls, inventory management, cost accounting.
QC/QA/QI: Maintain Drug Utilization Reviews, Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, Drug Utilization Evaluations, Quality Controls, Adverse Drug Reactions, Non-Formulary requests, Clinical Guidelines, Staff Competencies/Training, and other Quality Improvement activities.
Outpatient Services are staffed from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and patients are seen from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Inpatient Services are staffed from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and a minimum of six hours on Saturday, Sunday, and holidays with a Pharmacist on-call 24 hours a day.
Mechanism Used to Meet Patient Care Needs
The Pharmacy maintains a QC/QA/QI plan which includes drug utilization review, drug utilization evaluations, adverse drug reaction monitoring, non-formulary request monitoring, clinical guideline monitoring/development, competency evaluations, pharmacist/DEA/FDA license monitoring, pharmacists dispensing review, chemotherapy dispensing review, Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee activities, and various other quality control (patient waiting times, assessment of patient understanding of counseling, etc.) and quality improvement activities as determined. The Pharmacy also maintains workload indicators that are used to determine the application of existing resources and for strategic planning.
How the Unit is Staffed to Meet Patient Care Needs
The Pharmacy is staffed with 28 FTE's. Pharmacists account for 13 FTE's and Technicians account for 15 FTE's. Competency of staff is determined as new staff goes through orientation and the initial 3- month probationary period, in addition, each employee has an annual competency evaluation in conjunction with their performance appraisal. Workload indicators are continually monitored for adjustments in staffing (location, hours, FTE's, etc.).
Process Used for Acting on Both Positive and Negative Variances
The Pharmacy Department monitors workload activities and builds staffing schedules to accommodate the provision of care. Training and leave requirements are adjusted in order to assure the proper provision of care. Recruiting activities are on going and pharmacy intern(s) and TDY(s) fill any gaps in staffing.
