RMH Pharmacy Services
Do you love working in a vital, rapidly growing healthcare environment where you know that what you do matters? If so, RMH Pharmacy Services is the right fit for you.

Our program…then and now
At RMH, an expansion of clinical pharmacy services is currently underway in response to burgeoning demand. Here are the significant milestones in our clinical pharmacy program’s development:

	1982—RMH contracts for a 0.5 FTE pharmacist to provide clinical pharmacy services. The program starts with aminoglycoside dosing and expands to numerous drug monitoring programs and consultation services. The program soon grows to include 1.5 FTE contract clinical pharmacists and 1 FTE RMH staff pharmacist.
	2003—RMH brings clinical pharmacy services inhouse to better meet the needs of the patient, the hospital and the pharmacy department. Four clinical pharmacist positions and a clinical pharmacy manager position are created.
	Summer 2004—An additional pharmacist position is decentralized due to efficiencies obtained through implementation of the Robot-Rx.
	Spring 2005—High Fall Risk Medication Review is implemented. A clinical work area is created to provide staff with file space and access to clinical resources.
	Summer 2006—A new clinical pharmacist position is approved and staffed. RMH Pharmacy Services pilots a medication history program in the Emergency Department and implements an automatic pharmacist IV to Oral conversion program.
	Fall 2006—A pharmacist vaccination program is initiated, and an automatic therapeutic interchange program begins.
	Winter 2006—Two new clinical pharmacist positions and two pharmacy clinical assistants positions are created: To meet the demand for increasing clinical pharmacy services, including medication reconciliation; To provide clinical pharmacy services to the newly created cardiac surgery program at RMH; In response to approval received by RMH Pharmacy Services to develop and implement a PGY-1 residency; To increase pharmacy student presence at the hospital.
You can see that clinical pharmacy services at RMH have expanded rapidly over the past several years. Our medical staff and our administrative team have been key supporters of this expansion, and we expect this trend to continue into the future.

Current scope of care includes:
	Parenteral Nutrition Consult Service—ordering and monitoring parenteral nutrition;
	Antibiotic Consult Service—recommending and monitoring antibiotic therapy for patients;
	Home Health Consult Service—assisting in the transition of care for patients on IV medications who will be discharged and receive services through home health, including appropriateness of medication therapy for the outpatient setting and recommending a monitoring plan (lab work);
	Medication Dosing Consultation Service—dosing and monitoring of certain medications, including vancomycin, aminoglycosides, heparin, integrilin and argatroban (this service also involves renal dosing of any medication);
	Supporting the clinical programs of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, including adverse drug reaction monitoring, medication error reporting, therapeutic interchange and formulary complicance, medication use evaluation, etc.
	High Fall Risk Medication Review—reviewing medication therapy for any patient deemed to be at high fall risk;
	Pharmacist Vaccination Program—reviewing patients for indications and contraindications for influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations (the pharmacist may order these vaccines for appropriate patients);
	IV to Oral Conversion Program—converting appropriate patients and medications from the IV route to the oral route;
	Participation in multi-disciplinary patient rounds;
	Patient Education—including heart failure, bisphosphonates and cardiac rehabilitation;
	24/7 Inpatient Pharmacy operation—fully automated with automated dispensing cabinets and robot dispensing; and
	Outpatient Pharmacy services.

Future services include:
	Medication Reconciliation—Pharmacists will be involved with the acquisition of medication histories for high-risk patients upon admission. Pharmacy Clinical Assistants will help provide medication history services to the Emergency Department. Pharmacists will be involved in discharge medication reconciliation for high-risk patients, to include assisting the physician with choosing the appropriate medication regimen, counseling the patient regarding medication therapy and assisting with the transition of care.
	Diabetes Medication Management Services—Pharmacy will provide diabetes medication management services for hospital employees or other beneficiaries who elect to participate.
	Smoking Cessation Counseling Services—Pharmacy will provide smoking cessation medication management for employees who decide to quit smoking.
	PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program.