When most people think of a pharmacy, they think of the men and women who fill their medications behind a counter at your local drug store. At Parkview, the breadth of services these professionals facilitate reaches much further, to provide patients with the best possible treatment, and ultimately, the best possible care. We invited Tara Jellison, manager, Pharmacy, to share a comprehensive list of areas within Parkview you’ll find pharmacists and more about the ways our impressive Pharmacy team is making a difference every day.
Traditional retail pharmacy
Parkview offers outpatient retail pharmacy services at Medical Park 11 on the Parkview Regional Medical Center (PRMC) campus, Parkview Hospital Randallia, and two PharmaCare locations in Auburn and Garrett. These locations can fill prescriptions as well as offer different over-the-counter products depending on the location. Pharmacies for Parkview employees are also located at the community hospitals.
Specialty Pharmacy
In the fall of 2019, Parkview introduced the Specialty Pharmacy, which allows Parkview to serve patients who find themselves on medications that can be difficult to manage, expensive or require strict compliance. Pharmacists are in place with Infectious Diseases, Rheumatology. Gastroenterology and the Parkview Cancer Institute to facilitate this often challenging care.
Acute care
When patients are receiving care for emergent, urgent or short-term needs, Parkview has pharmacists within the operation verifying the effectiveness, safety and optimizing the scheduling of medications for each individual patient. These pharmacists ensure thousands of medication doses per day are prepared or compounded precisely and are distributed throughout all locations of the hospitals where patients are cared for and treated, spanning from newborn babies through geriatrics.
We also have pharmacists that go room to room on the hospital floors with our physician teams reviewing patient records, providing recommendations, and assisting with medication dosing to ensure the care they are receiving is of the highest quality and as safe as it can be. While not all patients can be seen in the room by a pharmacist, there are pharmacists assigned to review medications and assist with dosing antibiotics and other medication for every patient within the hospital.
PRMC has an Emergency Department pharmacist who is at the frontline of patient care. In these critical situations, the pharmacist is able to make sure the care team is providing the patient right medications at the right doses, and ensuring that medications given in the Emergency Department don’t interact with medications the patient is already taking at home. The pharmacist also makes sure the patient receives the right medications following the emergency event. Collaborating with highly skilled pharmacy technicians, patients’ medication lists are reviewed and updated if the patient requires admission to the hospital.
Parkview Cancer Institute
At the Parkview Cancer Institute, Parkview has a pharmacy team dedicated to patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy and immunotherapy infusions and injections, as well as oncology pharmacists that work within the provider offices to counsel patients, select appropriate chemotherapy, and facilitate treatment plans. These pharmacists have unique education and experience in this area.
Doctors’ offices
Parkview has been working to expand pharmacist services in doctors’ offices across the system. These pharmacists have joined our doctors’ office team in 14 primary care offices and cardiology. The pharmacist works with the doctors and nurse practitioners to help patients manage chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. They also support anticoagulation medications and ongoing medication efforts to improve or control conditions.
Pharmacists are also in Specialty clinics such as the Fall Prevention Clinic and Movement Disorders Clinic. They collaborate with the physicians and other care team members to ensure the patients have the right medications for their needs.
Parkview pharmacists also support home infusion services. If a patient is sent home requiring a medication infusion, a pharmacist is going to make sure that they have the right products and the process is as safe as possible for the individual.
Other pharmacists
Parkview has pharmacists focused on medication safety, who look across the health system and constantly improve processes, as well as a pharmacist working primarily in population health.
Parkview also has an Investigational Drug Service pharmacist team, which is necessary to allow patients in Northern Indiana access to clinical drug trials. These pharmacists review the clinical trial, develop patient education documents, and monitor how these special drugs are stored and prepared for the patient. These clinical drug trials ensure that Parkview is giving patients the latest, cutting-edge treatments available.
What the pharmacy presence means for Parkview patients
There’s evidence to show that pharmacists as part of the patient care team increases quality of care, decreases medication errors, and improves cost effectiveness of care. Our organization has recognized that, for our providers to be the best they can be, we need to give them those pharmacy resources so they’re able to focus on specific aspects of the patient. Having that pharmacist layer along with the provider really ensures that we’re delivering patient-centered care and looking at every piece of the patient.
The input our Pharmacy team can provide, from the Tumor Board at Parkview Cancer Institute to the conversations they have with care teams on the floor, makes a huge difference for the patient.
Getting the most out of your time with a pharmacist
It’s important that you not only carry an up-to-date medication list, but also that you share the list with your family. Often in situations where hospital services are necessary, the patient is in a stressful state of mind. It’s helpful to have a backup who readily knows the accurate information regarding medications and health history.
As you’re being treated for your healthcare needs, depending on the scenario, you might see multiple providers. If they aren’t all based within the same health system, medications prescribed and other health information might not transfer. In order to receive the most timely excellent care, it’s always best to be safe and carry a current medication list and health history.
What makes our program exceptional
The Parkview pharmacists continue to give back to the pharmacy profession by sharing their knowledge. Parkview trains over 100 pharmacy students each year to ensure the profession continues to develop and offers a first- and second-year pharmacy residency program. With a wide variety of specialties to work with, our post-graduate training is a great way to elevate the expertise of future professionals.
The Parkview pharmacists who see our patients are of the highest quality. Almost all of them are board certified in their area of expertise, whether that be oncology or critical care. Our pharmacists are continually improving their knowledge to maintain that board certification and have had additional testing and education requirements annually. They can analyze the new literature and know which medications are best for which diseases.
Parkview pharmacists are highly skilled, highly trained, and love taking care of patients.
