Pharmacy Services at UPMC

The UPMC Presbyterian Pharmacy Department has nearly 300:

• Pharmacists
• Pharmacy techs
• Residents and interns
• Support staff

Presby is a designated Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center. It's also 1 of 41 nationally certified Comprehensive Stroke Centers.

Acute Care and Intensive Care Services

Pharmacotherapists have medical degrees in pharmacy and specialized residency training in drug management.

These acute care specialists provide clinical pharmacy knowledge and skill to health care teams throughout UPMC. By working directly with doctors and patients, they make sure the drugs people take are safe and cost-effective.

Along with direct patient care, pharmacotherapists:

• Teach doctors, nurses, students, and other health care staff on the proper use of medication.
• Conduct research in their respective fields.
• Develop therapeutic guidelines and programs in drug monitoring.
• Teach pharmacy residents and students at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine.

Pharmacotherapy Services and Practice Areas

The pharmacotherapy team practices in a range of different areas.

UPMC is a renowned center for organ transplants, performing more than 20,000 transplant surgeries since 1981. We're also recognized leaders in a number of other health care specialties.

Medical units and services include:

• Cardiology
• Cardiovascular ICU
• Coronary Care Unit
• Cystic Fibrosis
• Heart Failure ICU
• Heart Transplant
• Infectious Diseases
• Internal Medicine
• Liver Transplant
• Lung Transplant
• Medical ICU
• Nephrology and Kidney Transplant
• Neurosurgery ICU
• Neurology
• PACU
• Surgical ICU

UPMC Presbyterian Peri-Operative Pharmacies

The UPMC Department of Surgery is one of the leading programs in the U.S., offering:

• Innovative surgical techniques.
• State-of-the-art technology.
• High-quality patient care.

Pharmacists in the operative and perioperative areas work directly with many members of the health care team including:

• Anesthesiologists
• Surgeons
• Perfusionists
• Acute pain providers
• Nurses
• Patients

As partners of the surgical team, they help to optimize the medication use system by providing distributive services. They also educate team members on the correct use of perioperative drugs in their areas.

UPMC Presbyterian Investigational Drug Service (IDS) Pharmacy

IDS is the research pharmacy for UPMC. Its main role is the fulfillment and accountability of clinical trial products.

IDS also:

• Supports researchers and other research staff looking to start and maintain studies.
• Helps with setting up studies to make sure clinical trials follow protocol.

Other services IDS offers include:

• Investigational product storage.
• Inpatient and outpatient dispensing.
• Coordination with clinical research coordinators.
• Product procurement and receiving.
• Patient-specific and sponsor accountability.
• Meetings with sponsor staff for site qualification, initiation, and closeout visits.
• Special services.
• Blinding.
• Randomization.
• Special packaging — including blister cards.
• Compounding -- sterile and nonsterile.
• Shipping (limits may apply under Pennsylvania law).
• Consults for logistics and protocols.

Other pharmacy programs and services include:

• Antimicrobial management program.
• Anticoagulation monitoring.
• Pharmacokinetics.
• Drug use policies and formulary management.
• Regulatory affairs.
• Analytics and outcomes.

Quality and Drug Safety

The UPMC Pharmacy Department has a commitment to assuring excellence in drug safety and quality.

The medication safety officer (MSO) works with others to frequently assess the drug management system to implement safety best practices.

Other duties of the MSO are:

• Constant review and tracking of drug-related events.
• Checking, recording, and reporting of medication safety findings to various committees.
• Teaching medication safety to faculty and staff.
• Quality control and process improvement.
• Accreditation and regulatory compliance.

Automation and Informatics

At UPMC Presbyterian, we have a team of pharmacists and technicians whose main focus is on:

• Clinical informatics.
• Pharmacy automation.
• Information systems support.

The informatics team provides:

• System builds.
• System maintenance.
• Troubleshooting support for the UPMC Presbyterian Cerner e-Record system.

The automation team supports the implementation, training, and troubleshooting of the centralized and decentralized automated dispensing, tracking, and delivery technologies.

Both teams keep staff apprised of Cerner e-Record updates and new developments in technology.