AHRQ Chief Champions Use Of Pharmacists In Emergency Departments

Main Category: Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 11 Apr 2008 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and an influential leader in U.S. healthcare, spotlights the important role pharmacists have improving medication safety in emergency departments (EDs) in a commentary in a recent edition of the Journal of Patient Safety.

In her commentary, Clancy emphasizes the growing need to employ pharmacists to reduce the risk of adverse drug events in the EDs, which have a complex nature and fast pace that increase the likelihood of such events. She points to ASHP's program, "Introducing an Emergency Pharmacist into Your Institution," as an initiative that helps hospitals obtain support for and implement emergency pharmacist programs.

AHRQ joined forces with the Society to launch the program, in which three emergency pharmacists and an emergency physician mentor 10 pharmacists on safe medication use and other topics in ED pharmacy.

ASHP, which also strongly supports staffing EDs with pharmacists, has a productive working relationship with AHRQ to improve the safety and quality of medication use.

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists