Pharmacy Prescription Assistance Program: Evaluation of a Health System Retail Model for Outpatients.

Access to essential medications remains a challenge, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. In 2021, 18 million U.S.

Effects of a hospitalwide pharmacy practice model change on readmission and return to emergency department rates.

Purpose: The impact of an innovative medication reconciliation and discharge education program on 30-day readmissions and emergency department (ED) visits was evaluated.

Methods: An observational pre-post analysis was conducted at an academic medical center to compare rates of hospital readmissions and return to ED visits during three-month periods before and after implementation of a restructured pharmacy practice model including (1) medication reconciliation at transitions of care for every patient and discharge education for a high-risk subgroup, (2) new or expanded services in the preanesthesia testing clinic and ED, (3) a medication reconciliation technician team, and (4) pharmacist-to-patient ratios of 1:30 on acute care floors and 1:18 on critical care units. The primary outcome was the composite of rates of readmissions and return to ED visits within 30 days of discharge.

Preceptor development: providing effective feedback, part 2.

An integral part of providing effective feedback to pharmacy residents occurs during the evaluation process. Residency evaluation involves measuring and documenting performance as it relates to standardized residency outcomes, goals, and learning objectives. Evaluations may be formative or summative and include the preceptor's evaluation of the resident's performance, the resident's self-assessments, and the resident's evaluation of the preceptor and learning experience.

Methods to Promote Preceptor Scholarship through Resident Collaboration.

Preceptor participation in scholarly endeavors is recognized in the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists's (ASHP) residency accreditation standards as a method to demonstrate commitment and contribute to the profession of pharmacy. Although workplace demands and position responsibilities may not allow adequate time for preceptors to pursue scholarly activities, collaboration with pharmacy residents in a structured environment can be mutually beneficial and aid in the professional development of the resident and preceptor. The goal of this article is to provide preceptors with a description of activities suitable for collaboration with residents and with tips to ensure success within the residency year.

Optimizing the customized residency plan.

Residents and residency program directors (RPDs) understand that the goal of the residency year is to earn a residency certificate through achievement of established goals and objectives. The customized residency plan provides a map for the resident and RPD to follow throughout the course of the residency year, helping to keep everyone on track to accomplish the established goals and objectives of the program. It also provides information that allows preceptors to take the individual resident's plan into consideration when customizing a learning experience.

Can the targeted use of a discharge pharmacist significantly decrease 30-day readmissions?

Background: The prevalence and cost of hospital readmissions have gained attention. The ability to identify patients at high risk for hospital readmission has implications for quality and costs of care. Medication errors have been shown to increase the risk for readmission.

Preceptor development: providing effective feedback.

Feedback plays a significant role in precepting and is indispensable in residency training. As described by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the goal of any postgraduate residency program is to prepare individual trainees to function as qualified practitioners. Although feedback and evaluations have traditionally been synonymous, our goal is to differentiate the two and describe the role of each within resident performance.

Leveraging drug-utilization and external benchmarking data to drive change in prescribing behaviors.

Purpose: Improved outcomes and cost savings achieved at a large hospital through a drug utilization benchmarking and reporting initiative are described.

Summary: Using the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Clinical Resource Manager (CRM) database, the University of Kansas Hospital identified nine target areas (based on Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group) in which the hospital's drug-utilization practices were deemed suboptimal relative to those of other UHC member facilities with similar caseloads. The pharmacy department developed a CRM template for generating customized reports comparing the hospital's performance on various drug-utilization metrics with that of top-performing peers (i.

Acute renal failure associated with inhaled tobramycin.

Purpose: A case of nephrotoxicity possibly caused by tobramycin inhalation solution is presented.

Summary: A 62-year-old Caucasian woman was admitted for treatment of decreased urine output and sepsis secondary to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Her past medical history was significant for multiple diseases, including chronic renal insufficiency (baseline serum creatinine concentration [SCr] 2 mg/dL).