Pharmacy Services
Services Provided
The Pharmacy Department provides decentralized services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Specialized pharmaceutical services are provided throughout the hospital. The role of pharmacy in patient care is widely accepted. At RWJUH, the pharmacists serve as active participants in the interdisciplinary health care team.
It is the goal of the RWJUH Pharmacy Department to provide high quality, comprehensive pharmaceutical services in the area of patient care and to provide recognized, meaningful research and education to RWJUH and the community which it serves.
It is the philosophy of the Department not only to function at the highest level of acceptable practice, but to be committed to innovation and development within that practice and to serve as a role model for Institutional Pharmacy Practice.
A dedicated staff and effective management, at all administrative levels, are necessary for the achievement of our goals. This aim requires planning, budgeting, communication and the development and administration of sound, progressive and equitable personnel policies. The Department will strive to recruit and retain highly qualified and competent staff and is also committed to facilitating professional growth within the department.
Patient Care
The provision of high quality comprehensive patient care is the fundamental mission of the Department. The Department seeks to provide total pharmacy services to all inpatients and ambulatory patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
To achieve this purpose the department will, in cooperation with other health care professionals, develop standards of practice and establish policies and procedures designed to:
- Acquire and maintain highly qualified, conscientious professional staff and supportive personnel that will assist in the provision of competent and rational patient care.
- Assure ready availability of safe and efficacious medications through the maintenance of an effective medication formulary system and the development of a well-controlled drug distribution system.
- Assure the proper administration of medications to patients.
- Utilize a system of patient monitoring which continuously evaluates the appropriateness of the patient’s drug therapy.
- Educate and inform the patient regarding his/her drug therapy
- Assure the quality of all patient care services through a frequent evaluation and correction of deficiencies.
Education
In accordance with a major mission of the hospital, education is of vital importance to the Pharmacy Department. This Department will encourage its professional staff to educate at every opportunity. These educational efforts will be directed to practitioners and students in pharmacy, medicine, nursing and other allied health professions.
In cooperation with the Rutgers University College of Pharmacy, a major educational thrust will be directed towards undergraduate, graduate and advanced professional degree students as well as toward the maintenance of post-graduate Pharmacy Residency programs. The educational thrust shall be directed towards the development of highly qualifies and innovative professionals.
Major educational efforts will be directed toward the patient. Inpatients and ambulatory patients will be educated through informal and formal educational programs. The impetus behind this effort is to promote a more complete understanding of medication use by the patient and to improve patient compliance.
Research
Research is the foundation for the Department’s goals of innovation and leadership.
The Department encourages the initiation, and development of meaningful research in areas such as clinical therapeutics, drug delivery systems, administrative sciences and the development of new roles in Pharmacy.
The Department encourages both individual research efforts and participation in collaborative research projects with other health professionals at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Rutgers University College of Pharmacy and Rutgers Medical School.
Clinical Services
Clinical services allow RWJUH to offer specialized services for different hospital populations. These services include emergency medicine, transplant, drug information, critical care, antimicrobial stewardship and internal medicine.
Pharmacy has a strong presence in many committees hospital-wide such as Infection Control, Antibiotic Stewardship, Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Medication Safety, Critical Care, and Committees set to manage diseases such as sepsis, stroke, and VTE to name a few.
Technology
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital is the recipient of multiple Annual Health Care’s Most Wired® Hospital awards and is excited to offer state of the art pharmacy technology services. These include:
- Allscripts Sunrise Clinical Manager® for electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry
- Pyxis ES automated dispensing systems including Pyxis® Anesthesia Systems
- Talyst® Carousel technology for inventory management
- Knowledge-Based Bedside Barcode Administration of medications
- Pharmacy OneSource® suite: clinical dashboards-to flag patient care initiatives, document pharmacist interventions and formulary management.