Pharmacy Services at UConn Health are overseen by the Associate Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer. Pharmacy services provided include, but are not limited to: pharmaceutical care across patient realms of ambulatory and home, emergency, infusion, and inpatient care, technical support, education, and research. The Inpatient Pharmacy Service at the John Dempsey Hospital is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week under the direct supervision of the Director of Hospital Pharmacy Services. Outpatient services, overseen by the Director of Specialty and Ambulatory Pharmacy, include clinical, specialty, retail, infusion center, and home infusion services. The Pharmacy also administers our robust 340b program under the direction of the University Director of 340B Services.

The inpatient pharmacy utilizes a de‐centralized unit‐dose service (Pyxis®ES), as well as a centralized unit‐dose system, with barcode medication administration (MAK), IV additive service for inpatients (utilizing DoseEdge™) and automated unit dose packaging software. The pharmacy also provides IV additive service and chemotherapy preparation service for infusion centers, and provides bulk drug to outlying clinics. The pharmacy also utilizes pharmacy‐wide perpetual inventory software called Logistics which communicates to storage devices, including our carousels. TUGS® and the SwissLog® tube system are utilized to deliver meds to the inpatient units. UConn Health uses the Epic electronic health record for all patient care documentation. The Outpatient Infusion Center Pharmacy also utilizes DoseEdge™ to provide dispensing services for chemotherapy and other infusions covering a wide variety of disease states. Orders are entered and verified utilizing the Epic system.

The hospital pharmacy staff is organized into units according to area of work: clinical coordinators, inpatient and ambulatory clinical staff, anticoagulation clinic, investigational drug service, medication safety, pharmaceutical procurement, pharmacy informatics, and specialty pharmacy services. Pharmacists staffing each unit provide pharmaceutical care services for their patients. These services include: 1) identifying, resolving, and preventing drug-related problems; 2) identifying goals of therapy, monitoring parameters, and desired outcomes; and, 3) educating the patient regarding medication regimens. The Pharmacy Service promotes active participation in daily pharmaceutical care activities to ensure quality patient care and assesses patient outcome.

In-patient clinical medication management entails:

• Medication profile clinical verification and review
• Drug allergy / interaction / duplication of therapy screening
• Dose verification
• Appropriate therapy route and duration
• Participation in multidisciplinary clinical rounds
• Adverse drug event monitoring
• Medication reconciliation and discharge operations
• Vancomycin / Aminoglycoside/ Warfarin dosing under collaborative practice
• Antibiotic stewardship program (IV to PO, renal dosing)
• Conduct regular educational sessions, symposiums and seminars
• Drug Information Services
• Culture review and antibiotic stewardship for patients seen in the emergency department

Out-patient / Ambulatory clinical medication management entails:

• Medication profile clinical verification and review
• Drug allergy / interaction / duplication of therapy screening
• Dose verification
• Appropriate therapy route and duration
• Medication dispensing
• Patient and family education and counseling
• Patient service-oriented pharmacy call center
• Anti-coagulation clinic (Refer to MSP-155 Anticoagulant
• Therapy Protocol for Out-Patients)
• Medication Management Clinic (Refer to MSP-116-17
• Medication Management Clinic)
• Psychiatry clinic
• Extemporaneous compounding unit

Intravenous sterile admixture services for both inpatient and outpatient areas entails:

• Total Parenteral Nutrition preparations
• Chemotherapy preparations
• Allergy mixes preparations and other parenteral preparations as necessary
• Nonsterile compounding unit

UConn Health Pharmacy is dedicated to achieving excellence in patient care, research, education, and public service through accurate, safe, efficient, and effective medication management. Our vision is to lead the advancement of pharmacy practice through collaborative innovation in all aspects of health care. We want to control costs to our patients and the institution through good medication stewardship.

Formulary management entails:

• Medication safety and continuous quality improvement
• Procure and maintain necessary medications that are required to treat our patients
• Exercise control over all the medication storage and distribution areas via the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee.

Our staff are engaged in research and education, with a focus on the development of both pharmacy students and residents. Both our research and training initiatives are led by the University Director of Residency Programs, our Residency Program Directors, and our UConn School of Pharmacy on-site faculty. Our site provides both introductory and advanced experiential learning for pharmacy students from the UConn School of Pharmacy. Our robust ASHP-accredited residency programs include positions in both PGY1 Pharmacy Practice and PGY2 Ambulatory Care Pharmacy.  We additionally have a development program for our student laborers, who are enrolled in pharmacy school and work with us during weekends and school breaks. Our trainees are embedded across all of our services, and we look to support them in providing a broad range of experiences to appeal to their unique future goals, while developing their leadership, strengthening their professional skills, and fostering their well-being. Both our staff and trainees support our research mission. We look to leverage research efforts around quality improvement and quality assurance initiatives that foster optimal, safe, and fiscally responsible medication use across our institution.