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.

We currently have 26 Pharmacists , 7 Clinical Pharmacists, 2 Pharmacy Residents, and 30 Pharmacy Techs working in our department.

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.
	July 2009—Our first residents graduate from the RMH PGY-1 Residency.
	September 2009—Receive accreditation from ASHP for PGY-1 Residency Program.
	June 2010—Move into new hospital pharmacy with state of the art technology.
	July 2010—Implement an automatic renal dosing program.
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 compliance, 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;
	Renal Dosing Program – decentralized pharmacists may automatically adjust doses of approved medications;
	24/7 Inpatient Pharmacy operation—fully automated with automated dispensing cabinets and robot dispensing;
	Outpatient Pharmacy services; and
	Precept 4th year pharmacy students on institutional, acute care, drug information, and management.