Pharmacy Services
The Department of Pharmacy provides pharmaceutical services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overall, there are approximately 34 FTEs including managers, pharmacists, residents, technicians and support staff. All pharmacy technicians are certified by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board ( PTCB) and assist pharmacists in filling orders, medication delivery, and sterile and non-sterile product compounding. Medication reconciliation technicians work in the Emergency Department and interact with patients, families, and retail pharmacies to ensure an accurate medication history is obtained.
With a strong commitment to medication safety and performance improvement, a focus on customer service, and a role in educating future health-care professionals, the Department of Pharmacy at RWJUH Somerset is devoted to delivering operational and clinical excellence, while advancing care and maintaining financial and operational growth.
Our pharmacists are actively involved in therapeutic management. Our policies, guidelines, programs and services ensure that patients receive evidence based appropriate pharmaceutical care as measured against accepted standards.
Individuals from the Department of Pharmacy are involved in numerous research activities, frequently publish and present scholarly work, and provide external educational programs on a national, state and local level. Pharmacists provide drug information and education to medical and nursing staff as well as patients, caregivers, and other members of the health care team to promote the safe, effective, efficient, and patient-centered use of medication therapy.
Pharmacy has a strong presence on many committees hospital-wide such as Infection Control, Antimicrobial Stewardship, Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Critical Care, Cardiac Care, IRB, and Medication Management/Medication Safety.
RWJUH Somerset Department of Pharmacy is currently affiliated with the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University, precepting more than 50 students per year and serving as a Knight Scholar site. The Department has established training and continuing education programs to foster the professional development of staff and students, and has had an ASHP accredited PGY1 residency program since 2015 with two PGY1 resident positions.
Clinical Services
Clinical services are provided in various areas including, but not limited to internal medicine, critical care, emergency medicine and other specialty areas (e.g. infectious diseases, oncology and investigational drugs).
Several clinical programs and protocols have been developed at RWJUH Somerset by the Department of Pharmacy, which include but are not limited to drug dosing protocols, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (i.e., pharmacy run vancomycin pharmacokinetic service, antimicrobial rounds), and clinical monitoring programs (i.e., anticoagulation monitoring program). The clinical pharmacy program is supported by three Rutgers Faculty, who are residency trained and dual board certified. They provide a significant contribution and serve as resources to family medicine, critical care, and the emergency department.
Technology
Medication is dispensed via a point of care decentralized distribution model supported by automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) on patient care units that provide nurses ready access to medications.
Hospital and pharmacy department information systems provide up-to-date patient information and on-line drug information resources. Medication orders are received via Computer Provider Order Entry (CPOE), entered by Pharmacy onto an Electronic Medication Record e-MAR and subsequently administered utilizing bedside bar-coding at the point-of- care. The use of this state-of-the-art technology enhances medication safety. Pharmacists document clinical interventions in the electronic medical record.