RWJ University Hospital at Hamilton
The Department of Pharmacy Services provides pharmaceutical care to the inpatients and outpatients of RWJ University Hospital at Hamilton, a 265 bed community hospital which is committed to Excellence Through Service and Quality. We exist to promote, preserve and restore the health of our community. The vision at Hamilton is to passionately pursue the health and well being of our patients, employees and the community through our culture of exceptional service and commitment to quality. The department supports all services within the hospital which includes inpatient, surgical, emergency and radiology services. We also care for our oncology patients in a robust outpatient hematology/oncology center located on campus. The pharmacy department also provides a pharmacist run outpatient anticoagulation clinic staffed by an anticoagulation certified pharmacist.
Pharmacy is highly integrated into the hospital patient safety system with the utilization of a common health information system shared among our inpatient department promoting intradepartmental information exchange. Pharmacy also utilizes a hospital wide automated medication distribution through a highly controlled network of automated dispensing cabinets in the inpatient, emergency, radiology and surgical suite areas. Our clinical information system supports the medication safety process from the creation of the medication order by utilization computer prescribed order entry (CPOE) with clinical alerts and algorithms, review and verification of medication orders by a pharmacist, through the use of Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) at the patients’ bedside. The clinical information system also supports safe medication use at RWJ Hamilton by providing in real time current patient medication regimens, current patient labs, allergies, significant patient demographics along with screening for drug-drug interactions, dose range checking and compatibility checks.
Through a staff of 50 highly trained pharmacists and technicians, the department provides a hybrid decentralized/centralized staff model. We continue our clinical staff developed training model where criteria based competency with a Critical Care Pharmacist designation within the facility. These pharmacists work with our ICU intensivists to provide prospective medication reviews and clinical services. We were able to expand this team from four pharmacists to eight pharmacist to allow for expanded services to the ICU and enhanced staff development. Cross-training in the pharmacy department has expanded and been a major focus of 2022, particularly with the cancer center and anticoagulation clinic. Through strong efforts, our staff in collaboration with other RWJ Hamilton staff helped achieve another A as our Leapfrog rating in 2022. Our staff are decentralized in the ICU, telemetry and medical/surgical units in order to provide medication therapy review and management utilizing a pharmacy surveillance system that monitors for over 190 medication related issues in real time. This, in collaboration with all members of the health care team, patients and their care givers, provide quality, evidence-based, cost effective care to help achieve our goals.
Our Antimicrobial Stewardship Taskforce is a successful example of pharmacy’s impact on overall outcomes. Not only has the team improved utilization and outcome indicators, but have also reduced dollars spent on antimicrobials in 2022, illustrating that quality care can be achieved with savings. We achieved a Bronze Award from NJHA for our Antimicrobial Stewardship taskforce. Besides the outpatient anticoagulation service that is offered, Medical Staff approved protocols are used by inpatient pharmacists to manage anticoagulation therapy and vancomycin initial dosing. Our pharmacists are also members of and respond to all Rapid Response Team and Medical Team alerts. Pharmacy is also active in patient education. We provide medication related sessions in orthopedic, antibiotic use education and various community education events and fairs. Pharmacy staff has also taken the lead in the formulation of an opiate Stewardship Taskforce to better measure, assess and determine improvements in opiate use to maximize benefit to our patients while reducing the risks that are associated with opiate use.
In keeping with our commitment to our own profession, our staff precepted 19 pharmacy and pharmacy technician students this year, mostly from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Our staff prides itself on helping develop highly qualified practitioners and giving back to our own profession and community. We maintained our Knight Scholar program with our affiliation with Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy where we take students for a period of four clinical rotations where they are exposed to clinical, administrative and leadership which enhances the overall experience for them and their development.