Media

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jessica Schiff, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
219.529.7985 / jschiff@sisunet.org

After-hours pharmacy project recognized nationally, nominated for AJHP Foundation Award

SISU Medical Systems; Duluth - The American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy recently nominated the journal article "Implementing after-hours pharmacy coverage for critical access hospitals in northeast Minnesota" (AJHP 2008; 65:1727-34.) for the ASHP Foundation's Literature Award for the category of Award for Innovation in Pharmacy Practice.

Key participants in the after-hours pharmacy coverage project included Timothy P. Stratton, Ph.D., BCPS, FAPhA, Associate Professor and Marcia M. Worley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy; Mark Schmidt, B.S. Chief Information Officer, SISU Medical Systems; and Michael Dudzik, B.S. Pharm., MHA, Director of Pharmacy, St. Luke's Hospital.

"SISU, in conjunction with the Minnesota Wilderness Health Care Coalition, St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, and the University of MN-Duluth, participated in a joint after-hours pharmacy orders project funded by a three year federal AHRQ grant," explains Schmidt, Co-Principal Investigator for the project. "Last year we submitted a manuscript outlining the project, process used, and the results to the American Journal for Health-System Pharmacy and our submission was accepted and published."

After its publication in AJHP in September 2008, the article piqued interest around the nation. Then, in April 2009, the project participants were informed of the article's ASHP Foundation's Literature Award nomination. According to the ASHP Foundation Web site, "The Award for Innovation in Pharmacy Practice is for an outstanding contribution to the biomedical literature that describes an innovation in pharmacy practice in hospitals and health systems."

"To have our project nominated for the ASHP Literature Award is a terrific way of recognizing the hard work of everyone involved - the users at our member facilities, Mike Dudzik of St. Luke's, Tim Stratton and Marcia Worley of UMD, and all of the SISU staff," Schmidt said.

"I was really surprised but also pleased that people think this is an important enough topic as a breakthrough for these small hospitals in regards to pharmacy support," Stratton said. "The article is a culmination of three years of work. We gave several presentations and led many discussions prior to the article being published."

The after-hours order entry service was implemented with eight Wilderness Coalition hospitals to provide physician order entry service Monday through Sunday for 12 hours per day. Dudzik, Co-Principal Investigator explains, "We [St. Luke's] take over the order entry for the participating hospitals and act as their pharmacy from 4 p.m. until 4 a.m. and on weekends and holidays."

"It seems like what we are doing is so simple," Dudzik said. "But we needed a team effort, cooperation from all of the pharmacists and the CEOs from SISU and the Wilderness Coalition. The journal article has been instrumental in showing it [an after-hours pharmacy] can be done and not cost that much money."

"Manpower was involved but there was not a great technology expense. I think this type of service is going to explode. The large hospital servicing the smaller hospitals is the best model. A lot of people are thinking about doing it because it's a way to save money while providing these important services," Dudzik said.

The abstract for the article can be found at: http://www.ajhp.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/18/1727

Official award results of the ASHP Foundation's Literature Award will be published later this year.