The Emergency Department Pharmacist as a Safety Measure in Emergency Medicine

Overview

This project focuses on improving medication safety by implementing an emergency department pharmacist program. A toolkit facilitates the implementation of similar programs into other hospital emergency departments. The toolkit includes:

• A description of the formal, optimized role of the emergency department pharmacist.
• Challenges and accompanying solutions to implementing emergency department pharmacist programs.
• Evidence to support the efficacy of such a program.

Target Audience

Emergency department physicians, nurses, pharmacists, quality and safety professionals, hospital leaders.

Health Care Setting

Emergency departments.

Toolkit Web Site

http://www.emergencypharmacist.org/index.html

Press Releases

AHRQ Awards More Than $8 Million To Further Implementation of Evidence-Based Patient Safety Findings 
June 8, 2005

Podcasts

Using Clinical Pharmacists in Emergency Departments
http://www.healthcare411.ahrq.gov/podcast.aspx?id=266

Presentation Slides

Researching the Use of Emergency Pharmacists in the ED 
Date: September 8, 2008
Venue: AHRQ 2008 Annual Conference
https://www.ahrq.gov/about/annualmtg08/090808slides/Fairbanks.htm

Journal Articles

Survey of physicians regarding clinical pharmacy services in academic emergency departments. Szczesiul JM, Fairbanks RJ, Hildebrand JM, Hays DP, Shah MN.Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2009 Mar 15;66(6):576-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19265187?dopt=AbstractPlus

Emergency department communication links and patterns. Fairbanks RJ, Bisantz AM, Sunm M. Ann Emerg Med. 2007 Oct;50(4):396-406. Epub 2007 Jun 7.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17559973?dopt=AbstractPlus

Medical and nursing staff highly value clinical pharmacists in the emergency department. Fairbanks RJ, Hildebrand JM, Kolstee KE, Schneider SM, Shah MN.Emerg Med J. 2007 Oct;24(10):716-8.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17901274?dopt=AbstractPlus

Impact Case Studies

Mercy Hospital and Unity Hospital and Allina Hospitals and Clinics — Posted September 2009
https://www.ahrq.gov/about/casestudies/ptsafety/ps2009e.htm

American Society of Health-System Pharmacists — Posted June 2008
https://www.ahrq.gov/about/casestudies/ptsafety/ps2008.htm