It’s National Pharmacy Week!

The third full week of October is annually celebrated as National Pharmacy Week — giving the organization a chance to celebrate all the work that pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others that support safe medication use do at Michigan Medicine.

From medication provision and monitoring of care, novel therapy preparation and distribution, and stocking essential medications, pharmacy team members have helped provide outstanding patient care amid the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can be found in all areas of U-M Health, from hospitals to ambulatory care clinics to infusion centers to community pharmacies. In executing their various roles, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians may be seen at the bedside of patients or in a pharmacy.

Here’s a quick snapshot of just some of the work this team has done over the past year:

• Pharmacy provided direct patient care in dozens of clinical specialties including medicine, surgery, cardiology, pediatrics, oncology, medication use, primary care, diabetes, medication safety, infectious diseases, transitions of care, pain management and palliative care.
• Supported patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with novel therapies including infusions of monoclonal antibodies.
• Implemented many new clinical guidelines and medication protocols including dosing adjustments for patients with renal disease and contemporary approaches to dosing and monitoring vancomycin.
• Provided anticoagulation education and discharge transitions of care services to over 2,500 patients.
• Pharmacists monitored and adjusted pharmacokinetic and anticoagulation doses more than 350 times per day or more than 127,000 times in the year.
• Trained pharmacy residents in 17 clinical programs and supported a leadership fellowship.
• Implemented Epic Dispense Prep and Dispense Tracking that utilizes barcode scanning in the medication distribution process for safety and accuracy. 
• Successfully completed sterile compounding certification by The Joint Commission at 18 sites.
• The central pharmacy helped dispense more than 135,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Implemented BD IV Prep for standardization and safety in sterile compounding utilizing barcode scanning and gravimetric measurements.
• The adult operating rooms and CVC teams helped navigate multiple national drug shortages.
• Collectively, pharmacy team members authored more than 100 publications. 
• C&W Pharmacy distributed more than 1.2 million doses of medication.
• Ambulatory pharmacies filled nearly 267,000 prescriptions.
• EAA Surgery Center implemented a new Operating Room Pharmacy.
• The specialty pharmacy served almost 6,000 patients.
• The emergency services pharmacy team completed 2,645 admission medication histories.
• The transitions of care pharmacy submitted more than 2,500 appeals on behalf of patients.
• Pain management and palliative care teams expanded to support the new Addiction Consult Team.
• The department launched a pharmacy tech training program to train new technicians.
• The EAA Surgery Center Pharmacies successfully completed an audit by the DEA.

Please wish your incredible pharmacy colleagues a happy Pharmacy Week!