Happy Pharmacy Appreciation Month!
Soon you will be able to hug your Pharmacist and Pharmacy Technician again! The Pharmacy Team would like to express their feeling of kinship with our fellow QCH frontline members. Over the past two years, we’ve all been through a lot together and we’re looking forward to brighter days ahead.
Our Pharmacy Technicians are essential for:
Dispensing, distributing, and preparing medications for administration.
Providing health care teams with accurate and up-to-date information about which medications patients have been taking at home, reducing drug errors.
Preparing IV medications with longer beyond use dating which saves nurses’ time.
Keeping the 32 automatic dispensing cabinets well-stocked throughout the hospital every day, so meds are on-hand when needed.
But wait, they do more…
Pharmacists review the medication orders for all admitted patients — that’s over 300,000 medication orders per year! They often modify medication orders to make them appropriate for patients and nurses to administer. Pharmacists dose Vancomycin, Aminoglycoside, Warfarin, and TPN (Total Parenteral Nutrition) based on patient lab levels. Pharmacists advise physicians on patient-specific pharmaceutical care plans, preventing drug therapy problems, and educating our patients to ensure they understand and adhere to their medication regimens. In particular, the QCH Pharmacist COPD Discharge program has shown a 43% reduction in 30-day ED and readmissions compared to no pharmacist involvement, which was published in the Canadian Pharmacy Journal.
What don’t they do?!
The pandemic has added additional pressures. Our pharmacy team typically spends hours every week dealing with backorders. Did you know QCH Pharmacy chairs the Regional Pharmacy COVID Committee, which collaborates with regional pharmacies, ID physicians, and ICU physicians?! This unique regional initiative ensured that all eligible patients received COVID medication therapy no matter which hospital — even with significant drug shortages. Let’s not forget their incredible work when it comes to our vaccine clinic! They drew up 62,070 vaccines for staff, physicians and community members, and Pharmacists were administering not only to outpatients but inpatients too.
QCH Pharmacy - Totally Crushing It!