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
healthcare 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:
1. Acquire and maintain highly qualified, conscientious professional staff
and supportive personnel that will assist in the provision of competent
and rational patient care.
2. 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.
3. Assure the proper administration of medications to patients.
4. Utilize a system of patient monitoring which continuously evaluates
the appropriateness of the patient’s drug therapy.
5. Educate and inform the patient regarding his/her drug therapy
6. 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 a recipient of the 18th Annual
Health Care’s Most Wired® Hospitals 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.