Ochsner Health recently received a 2023 Vizient Pharmacy Vision Award. Ochsner is recognized for Excellence in Innovation, which honors teams who have implemented novel approaches to complex patient care in conjunction with other departments. The Ochsner team, represented by Lisa Boothby and Kellee Brown, was recently recognized at the Vision Awards Reception hosted by Vizient in Las Vegas, Nev.
Ochsner received the Excellence in Innovation award for its Inpatient Interdisciplinary Care Teams – Integration of Medication Administration Pharmacists program. This program was designed and implemented as a direct response to the nursing shortage impacting Ochsner and many other health systems nationwide. To combat the nursing shortage while minimizing contract labor expenses, medication administration pharmacists were deployed at two hospitals within the health system.
“Pharmacists have been integral to the patient care interdisciplinary team in acute care settings for years,” said Deborah Simonson, vice president and chief pharmacy officer, Ochsner Health. “Through this program, the medication administration pharmacists focus on medication administration and education, discharge planning, medication counseling and reconciliation, all of which are tasks routinely performed by nurses.”
This unique approach to staffing challenges has proven successful on many fronts. Within the program, pharmacists administered 99% of medications for assigned patients and late medication administration decreased from 15% to less than 3% with no medication errors. Additionally, patient satisfaction scores showed a 37% increase in patients understanding side effects of medications and a 44% increase in patients understanding the purpose of their new medications. Nurses demonstrated overwhelming support, with all recently surveyed nurses requesting pharmacist assistance moving forward.