Development and implementation of a clinical decision support-based initiative to drive intravenous fluid prescribing.

Objective: Studies suggest superior outcomes with use of intravenous (IV) balanced fluids compared to normal saline (NS). However, significant fluid prescribing variability persists, highlighting the knowledge-to-practice gap. We sought to identify contributors to prescribing variation and utilize a clinical decision support system (CDSS) to increase institutional balanced fluid prescribing.

Evaluation and optimization of take-home naloxone in an academic medical center.

With the United States in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic, efforts to reduce overdose deaths have increased. Expanding access to the opioid antagonist naloxone can combat the epidemic. A pilot project in a psychiatric hospital resulted in the development of a screening tool in the electronic medical record (EMR) to help pharmacists identify adult inpatients at high risk of opioid overdose.

Evaluating pharmacy leader development through the seven action logics.

Purpose: Pharmacy leader development over time was analyzed using the seven action logics.

Methods: As part of an ongoing leadership seminar series, students were required to select a visionary pharmacy leader and conduct a structured interview to evaluate pharmacy leaders' action logics. A standardized questionnaire comprising 13 questions was created by the class.

Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative task force report: Improving participation in a survey on hospital pharmacy practices in Texas.

Purpose: Results of an initiative to increase participation in a survey on hospital pharmacy practices are reported.

Methods: In an initiative led by pharmacy residents at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, a task force was created to boost the rate of response to the Hospital-Assessment Survey (HSA), an online benchmarking tool developed as part of the ASHP-sponsored Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI). Under the guidance of leaders from ASHP's Texas affiliate and state health-system pharmacy leaders, an 11-member team of residents targeted Texas hospitals that had not responded to the HSA as of December 2013 and used phone and e-mail methods to encourage survey participation.

Expansion of clinical pharmacy through increased use of outpatient pharmacists for anticoagulation services.

Purpose: The expansion of clinical pharmacy services through increased use of outpatient pharmacists for anticoagulation services is described.

Summary: Due to the high demand for clinical pharmacist services by patients and medical staff at Harris Health System in Houston, Texas, and the strict budgetary restrictions to improve the quality of care through cost-neutral services, a new telephone anticoagulation monitoring service, provided by clinical pharmacists, was established at four of the busiest anticoagulation ambulatory care centers within the system. One clinical staff pharmacist was trained in each of the four clinics by a clinical pharmacy specialist.