Newark Beth Israel Medical Center

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is a 665-bed quaternary care, teaching hospitale stablished in 1901 that has provided comprehensive health care for the region for over 100 years. Among the many services that Newark Beth Israel provides, it is home to one of the nation’s 10 largest heart transplant centers, New Jersey’s only Advanced Lung Disease and Transplant Program, and the Children's Hospital of New Jersey, the state's premier children's health facility which provides state-of the-art care in nearly 30 pediatric subspecialties. The hospital has received numerous awards that recognizes their excellence in delivering health care. Recent accolades includes being named as one of the World’s Best Hospital by Newsweek, earning an “A” grade for safety and quality, and received the Get with the Guidelines Resucitation Gold Award from the American Heart Association.

The Department of Pharmacy’s mission is to provide our patients with effective pharmaceutical care in a safe, compassionate and innovative environment. The department is supported by over 90 employees who consist of highly trained pharmacists, technicians, residents, and administrative pharmacy staff who ensure the safe delivery of pharmaceutical services for all inpatient and outpatient age groups. We support the pediatric patients of the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey who have varying severity of illnesses including patients in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. We also service our extensive outpatient and inpatient oncology and hematology population which includes the Valerie Fund, our pediatric oncology program, as well as the Comprehensive Hemophilia Treatment Center. Pharmacy also plays a very intricate and vital role in the heart and lung transplant population by providing comprehensive reviews of their complex medication regimens as well as counseling services.

The Family Treatment Center is a premier outpatient facility in the community that consists of various centers such as the Pediatric Health Center, Women’s Health Center, and the Center for Geriatric Health Care; all of which is supported and serviced by the pharmacy department.

In order to support the multiple hospital services that Newark Beth provides, the pharmacy is decentralized in the pediatric, oncology, emergency and critical care wings of the hospital, enabling pharmacists to be an immediate medication expert resource to all members of the health care team. In the central pharmacy, the clinical staff pharmacists verifies orders for those areas that do not have a decentralized pharmacy, answer medication related questions, and oversees the overall dispensing of medications and compounding of sterile products.

Technicians, many of which hold additional certifications, support the activities of the pharmacists in the decentralized areas and main pharmacy Our patient discharge advocate technician provides the services of the Meds-to-Beds program by working collaboratively with the transitions of care team to ensure continuity of care and decrease readmissions. The department also manages the hospital’s 340b program which generates cost savings that helps support the patient liaison technician role which is to ensure the continuum of patient care, as it relates to medication access and adherence.

The pharmacy has five clinical specialists, who provide specialized services in the areas of transplant, critical care, pediatrics, and internal medicine. They provide additional support to pharmacy, physicians, patients, and many other health care disciplines by participating in daily multidisciplinary rounds and providing pharmaceutical recommendations at the bedside to optimize patient care. They also support the accredited PGY1 Pharmacy Residency program by serving as preceptors and mentors.

The department provides unique and innovative educational opportunities for pharmacy students, technicians, and residents as well as other health care disciplines throughout the hospital and has contributed to the field of pharmacy through multiple poster presentations at local and national conferences.

The department is an active member of the hospital’s journey toward being a high reliability organization so everything centers around striving to provide the best in pharmaceutical care, service excellence, patient safety, and research and education, with the ultimate goal of helping patients and health care providers make the best decisions when it comes to managing medications.

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center Pharmacy Leadership