Recently, there has been improved critical care intervention, amplified patient safety, and superior communication between medical staff at St. Luke's The Woodlands Hospital.
St. Luke's decision for their pharmacists to be present on site in ICU made it the first Montgomery County hospital to have decentralized their pharmacy department.
Peg Reiter, RN, PhD, Assistant Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of St. Luke's The Woodlands Hospital said ""As we anticipated, this initiative is resulting in better communication, increased patient safety, and improved interdepartmental relationships in terms of rapport and teamwork.""
""The decentralization of pharmacy has been very positive and effective. The pharmacists are now an integral part of the ICU, and because they are closer to the patients and their attending physicians and nurses, we are naturally enhancing our critical care interventions,"" said Jefy M. Mathew, M.D., FCCP, D.ABSM, a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine physician, serving as a Medical Director of ICU for St. Luke's.
""This has been rewarding to make a productive impact by serving on the ICU floor. The pharmacists are actually participating in emergency codes and responding to emergencies with the team. Here, we can immediately identify patient concerns regarding medication needs and answer questions that a physician or nurse may have. Our accessibility allows us to quickly resolve any issues, which in turn enhances our patient safety goals and also increase our response time to get medications to the patient,"" added Kaye Rathmann, Pharmacy Manager at St. Luke's The Woodlands Hospital.
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