Planning an Integrated and Fulfilled Life.

Most pharmacy leaders are motivated by altruistic personal and professional goals. Pharmacy leaders want to develop departments that are patient-centered and optimize financial performance, quality, and safety in the medication use process. In addition, many pharmacy leaders want to give back to their communities; this may be in the form of volunteerism, service on leadership boards, or through philanthropy.

Strategic approach for improving the medication-use process in health systems: the high-performance pharmacy practice framework.

Purpose: A strategic approach to improving the medication-use process in health systems by using a framework for setting priorities on the basis of feasibility, the potential for financial return, and the effect on quality and safety is described.

Summary: A panel consisting of leaders in health-system pharmacy identified seven dimensions of high-performance pharmacy (HPP) framework: medication preparation and delivery, patient care services, medication safety, medication-use policy, financial performance, human resources, and education. Performance elements, which are specific policies, procedures, activities, and practices that indicate high performance and result in a financial or clinical return on investment of resources, within each dimension were identified.

Harvey A. K. Whitney lecture. Interdependence in pharmacy: risks, rewards, and responsibilities.

The importance of interdependence in the future of the pharmacy profession is discussed. In politics, economics, business, and health care, the pursuit of individual independence is giving way to the realization that interdependence is necessary for future success. Communication technology and the accelerated growth of new knowledge foster interdependence.

Effects of bar coding on a pharmacy stock replenishment system.

A bar-code stock ordering system installed in the ambulatory-care pharmacy and sterile products area of a hospital pharmacy was compared with a manual paper system to quantify overall time demands and determine the error rate associated with each system. The bar-code system was implemented in the ambulatory-care pharmacy in November 1987 and in the sterile products area in January 1988. It consists of a Trakker 9440 transaction manager with a digital scanner; labels are printed with a dot matrix printer.

Qualifications for future hospital pharmacy directors as perceived by pharmacy directors and hospital administrators in Wisconsin.

Hospital pharmacy directors and administrators in Wisconsin were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the responsibilities, skills, postgraduate education, training, and experience necessary for hospital pharmacy directors during the next 10 years. Packages containing two identical questionnaires were mailed in April 1985 to the pharmacy directors at all 159 hospitals in Wisconsin. The pharmacy director and his or her immediate supervisor were asked to use a 5-point Likert-type scale to rate the importance of various responsibilities and skills and also to rank the most important responsibilities, skills, and issues.

Current trends in home health care.

The historical development and future of home health-care (HHC) services are reviewed from the perspectives of hospitals and hospital pharmacists. Hospitals have had three choices available to them for offering HHC services: refer patients to outside vendor, establish joint ventures, or establish independent programs. The market strategies of HHC vendors are reviewed, and the factors that portend continued rapid growth for HHC are discussed.

Health-care trends influencing the financial management of hospital pharmacies.

Current trends affecting health care and the response of the health-care industry to these trends are described, and recommended actions for hospital pharmacy departments are presented. The effects of societal changes, technological advances, information collection and exchange, excess physician population, cost constraints, and competition are examined. Appropriate responses include programs to lower costs, improved financial-monitoring systems, creative methods for attracting patients and donations, specialization of care, corporate formation and restructuring, emphasis on ambulatory and preventive programs, partnership with medical staff, deregulation initiatives, and standardization of hospital statistics.