COVID-19 preparedness: Clinical pharmacy services remote staffing in a quaternary, level I trauma and comprehensive stroke center.

Purpose: The rapid spread of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has strained the resources of healthcare systems around the world. In accordance with recommendations from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and US Department of Defense, Intermountain Medical Center (IMED) in Murray, UT, has developed a plan to provide remote clinical pharmacy services to protect the health of pharmacy caregivers while maintaining appropriate clinical pharmacy coverage to optimally care for patients.

Summary: The utilization of telemedicine technology permits clinical pharmacists to readily communicate with nurses, physicians, other caregivers, and patients.

Cost-reduction strategy for isoproterenol use in radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures.

Purpose: A cost-reduction strategy for isoproterenol use in radiofrequency catheter ablation procedures was evaluated.

Summary: A medication-use evaluation at a 454-bed tertiary medical center revealed that the cardiac catheterization laboratory was the highest user of isoproterenol. Isoproterenol was removed from all AcuDose-Rx machines Omnicell, Mountain View, CA, and compounding was performed by pharmacy personnel.

Effective Decentralization of a Pharmacy Technician to Facilitate Delivery of Medications Prior to Discharge in a Community Hospital.

There are many benefits to a well-designed prescription process and delivery service at the time of discharge from the hospital. However, the discharge prescription delivery service in our hospital has historically been infrequently utilized. To assess the number of patients with prescriptions in hand prior to discharge, the number of prescriptions filled, the duration of time to get discharge prescriptions to the floor, and the motivation patients had for declining the service.