: The goals of this project are two fold: (1) To use health information technology to improve the safety and health of patients served by the participating hospitals by having professional pharmacy services available for medication consultation and dispensing 24 hours a day 7 days a week in 10-rural hospitals in Northeastern Minnesota and (2) To use health information technology to develop a shared pharmacy program in partnership with a tertiary care health care system that will make it economically possible for the rural hospitals to have the quality of professional services described in (1) available and sustainable. Specific grant activities to achieve these ends include staffing the pharmacy at St. Luke's so that after hours pharmacy and consultation are available 24/7, to have a staff of pharmacists who can provide coverage at the sites with a single pharmacist when that pharmacist is on leave, to complete the installation of an interactive video-conferencing system to provide continuing education for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians without having to leave their home sites, and to implement a model using three demonstration hospitals to have bedside verification of medication administration and medication bar coding in place. In addition, an Intranet based set of policies and procedures will be developed that can be adapted to each site, meeting standards equivalent to a Joint Commission accredited hospital. ? ? The University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, Duluth, will provide the evaluation component for this project and will evaluate structure, process and outcomes related to improvement of patient safety and more effective patient medication management through the availability and use of professional pharmacist services for all medication administration. ? ?
| Stratton, Timothy P; Worley, Marcia M; Schmidt, Mark et al. (2008) Implementing after-hours pharmacy coverage for critical access hospitals in northeast Minnesota. Am J Health Syst Pharm 65:1727-34 |
