Institutional Pharmacy Setting Essays

Institutional Pharmacy Setting Essays Institutional Pharmacy Setting Essay Institutional Pharmacy Setting Essay Pharmacy Setting latrice HCP 210 December 5, 2010 Patrice Daniels Institutional Pharmacy Setting Pharmacy Institutional setting is a service provided 24 hours a day 365 (Johnston, 2006) days a year. Most Institutional pharmacy provides blister pack medications to ensure the safety and quality to the patient. Institutional pharmacy are design to provide safe and secure prescriptions most of the time the patients are on site within the pharmacy. Pharmacist works hand and hand with doctors, Physical Therapist, and nurses to provide consultations and feedback to the doctors if needed. Not only does an institutional pharmacy provide quality care they also allow for patients to return unused and unopened medications for credits (Johnston, 2006). Pharmacy Technicians has a wide variety of task to do in an institutional pharmacy. There responsibility includes data collection and reporting, they will manage inventory and billing as well as formulary maintenance. Technicians must perform surveys and inspections on patient’s rooms for medications, while conducting inspections audits are done on the narcotic inventory. Technicians are also responsible for maintaining the crash carts for emergencies. Education is vital to this field of work because it require focus and lots of thinking. Although technicians have to educate themselves, they also have to attend in-service meetings and assist in organizing and maintain the medical library (Johnston, 2006). As a part of every day duties the pharmacy has to be stocked with supplies and medications used this will include ordering drugs as well. Technicians also perform maintenance on the devices use like fax machines and printers and so forth. Before a technician can perform in a pharmacy setting like an institutional pharmacy, they should have adequate training because it so important and patient’s lives are at risks. Medications are dispensed in an institutional pharmacy the same way it is in an ambulatory pharmacy. The prescription may be called in, faxed from the doctor. It may even be done electronically from the computer system. All prescriptions must include patient’s name, birth date, room number and bed number (Johnston, 2006). The actual prescription must include name of the medication, strength, route to administer, how often given (Johnston, 2006). All prescriptions must include the prescriber signature and depending on the medication, state law requires a (DEA). Once the pharmacy has received the prescription the medication is processed filled and billed. Verification is the one of the last steps done before the technician deliver it to the floor. Most of the time the hospitals and long term care facilities keep floor stock handy. Orders can range from IV’s, TPN’s, unit dose, so depending on the written order will determine what will be processed from the pharmacy. The two pharmacies differ in many ways; an institutional pharmacy is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week where other pharmacies are not open. The main differences the institutional pharmacies deal with many sterile drugs, chemo drugs and aseptic techniques. In an ambulatory pharmacy one cannot bring back medications whether it is open or not this is per state law where permitted. An institutional pharmacy does a more variety of medications then a noninstitutional pharmacy, most institutional pharmacies perform many injectable, IV drugs and unit dose packaging. Just as working in a noninstitutional pharmacy, drugs may not be available or may be discontinued. The doctor may send the prescription for a dose that may be available in that strength. In addition, the doctor or representative may leave out the patient’s date of birth. The most common one I have seen is where the doctor misses the dispense quantity. The doctor can also confuse the two patients together with same name. One of the things that may be unique is getting a patient mixed up with another patient and not having the drug available. Although working in an institutional pharmacy may be challenging it can be interesting as well. I have discussed in this paper the the roles a technician has as well as the process it take to prepare a prescription in an institutional pharmacy. It is very important that the doctors and staff work together as a team to ensure the safety of the patient and the quality that is expected of them. Technicians not only perform more tasks at an institutional pharmacy but they require more intense training. The importance of the pharmacy is to satisfy the patients and that is most important. Reference Johnston, M. (2006). The Pharmacy Technician Series: Fundamentals of Pharmacy Practice. Upper Saddle, NJ: Prectice Hall.