Telepharmacy?

[Taurus]

http://www.darkdaily.com/nighthawk-...hology-laboratories-be-next-706#axzz3wPZWBC9O

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[pillpharmer14]

I see you're partial to DNP's.

In regards to the article, I think the author has a gross misunderstanding of medication delivery systems in a hospital setting. It would be very difficult to simply plug a pharmacist into a chair that does not have intimate knowledge of the hospital, the eMAR system, the various floors and service lines and the random requirements that are institution specific.

Telepharmacy in this setting would face enormous challenges because they would have to rely on pharmacy technicians for the timely dispensing and delivery of medications. Pharmacy technicians are not trained as healthcare professionals. Pharmacy technicians do not care if your patient is in afib and needs amio STAT when their shift is about to end. They may even throw the label away so they don't have to deal with it before they leave. I have seen these things happen. Sure, you would have pharmacists supervising remotely, and management on-site, but you need pharmacists intimately involved in the workflow in order to make sure things get done. Technicians simply do not make enough money to be responsible for running the entire department.

 

[awval999]

Hospitals already have remote order verification if that is what this is about, especially during overnight hours.

One of our community hospitals had it for the longest time until the hospital president (a physician, of course) was up in arms about how his hospital shouldn't have a closed pharmacy for 8 hours a day, guess who got an overnight pharmacist?

 

[gwarm01]

I think the Tenet hospitals in Florida have a lot of telepharmacy. I don't know the details, but when I graduated I had interviewed for a position at one of their smaller hospitals. The director told me that the telepharmacists handle order entry for basic things, less critical patients, medications stocked in pyxis and that sort of thing. They kept clinical pharmacists on-site to handle more complicated issues and things that require physician followup or communication with nursing. I can only assume they have at least one pharmacist in the pharmacy to make sure things get done. The comment above about pharmacy technicians is absolutely true. They don't have the training or knowledge to know what is truly critical or how to triage based on patient needs.

I'm curious about hospitals where the pharmacy closes overnight. I assume this would be for a smaller community hospital, right? I couldn't imagine a hospital with a decent level of acuity getting by without an open pharmacy. Do the nurses just rely on pyxis for their medication needs? Are orders left to be verified in the morning, with medications being pulled on override? How do they handle stock outs?

 

[Taurus]

I didn't know that telepharmacy existed until I read that article. As I radiologist, I can tell you that tele is bad for the workers of that industry. It significantly commoditizes what you do. Hospitals and companies will figure out what they can and can't send over the wires. Not everything in radiology can be done remotely either but a lot can. Tele will drive down your wages and decrease job opportunities.

 

[panasoniku]

I think the Tenet hospitals in Florida have a lot of telepharmacy. I don't know the details, but when I graduated I had interviewed for a position at one of their smaller hospitals. The director told me that the telepharmacists handle order entry for basic things, less critical patients, medications stocked in pyxis and that sort of thing. They kept clinical pharmacists on-site to handle more complicated issues and things that require physician followup or communication with nursing. I can only assume they have at least one pharmacist in the pharmacy to make sure things get done. The comment above about pharmacy technicians is absolutely true. They don't have the training or knowledge to know what is truly critical or how to triage based on patient needs.

I'm curious about hospitals where the pharmacy closes overnight. I assume this would be for a smaller community hospital, right? I couldn't imagine a hospital with a decent level of acuity getting by without an open pharmacy. Do the nurses just rely on pyxis for their medication needs? Are orders left to be verified in the morning, with medications being pulled on override? How do they handle stock outs?

HCA hospitals, not Tenet.

 

[BMBiology]

I didn't know that telepharmacy existed until I read that article. As I radiologist, I can tell you that tele is bad for the workers of that industry. It significantly commoditizes what you do. Hospitals and companies will figure out what they can and can't send over the wires. Not everything in radiology can be done remotely either but a lot can. Tele will drive down your wages and decrease job opportunities.

Has radiologist salary been dropping?

 

[genesis09]

Telepharmacy has been around for a while, at least ten years. It just isn't very popular. There are a lot of regulations around it. In Wisconsin, you need special approval beyond a regular pharmacy license for a telepharmacy. All applications must be directly reviewed by the board during a meeting.

 

[Taurus]

Has radiologist salary been dropping?

Job opportunities are more difficult and wages are stagnant. Makes sense if you consider laws of supply and demand. Lucky for me, I got into a great group.

 

[pillpharmer14]

I think the Tenet hospitals in Florida have a lot of telepharmacy. I don't know the details, but when I graduated I had interviewed for a position at one of their smaller hospitals. The director told me that the telepharmacists handle order entry for basic things, less critical patients, medications stocked in pyxis and that sort of thing. They kept clinical pharmacists on-site to handle more complicated issues and things that require physician followup or communication with nursing. I can only assume they have at least one pharmacist in the pharmacy to make sure things get done. The comment above about pharmacy technicians is absolutely true. They don't have the training or knowledge to know what is truly critical or how to triage based on patient needs.

I'm curious about hospitals where the pharmacy closes overnight. I assume this would be for a smaller community hospital, right? I couldn't imagine a hospital with a decent level of acuity getting by without an open pharmacy. Do the nurses just rely on pyxis for their medication needs? Are orders left to be verified in the morning, with medications being pulled on override? How do they handle stock outs?

Yeah I suppose that would work well with routine stuff. I was obviously objecting to doing the entire operation remotely. It still seems like there would be tons of back and forth with the nursing staff over med timing, home doses that don't match entered orders and such. And you make good points about stock outs and emergency stuff. Not sure how it would work in a big hospital with blood products and high dollar Crofab and stuff.

 

[baronzb]

I think this is why the deans and their organizations are pushing for a 'super tech,' but that is years, if ever, if it comes to fruition. My dean mentioned, without any irony, that there maybe to tracks, a clinical and a community training route for schools.

 

[gwarm01]

I think this is why the deans and their organizations are pushing for a 'super tech,' but that is years, if ever, if it comes to fruition. My dean mentioned, without any irony, that there maybe to tracks, a clinical and a community training route for schools.

You can't help but wonder if these people really believe what they say or if they are content just outright lying to students.

Creating a "super tech" with authority to verify and dispense medications would be dangerous to the public and destroy pharmacy as a profession.

 

[baronzb]

these deans are completely cut-off from pharmacy.

the 'super tech' would have the first two years of school, the clinical people the last two years.