What exactly is a Health-System Pharmacist?

Good question.

The American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP), a 30,000-member national professional association made up of pharmacists who practice in health care systems, defines a health system the following way:

"Health systems include hospitals, long-term care facilities, home care operations, and staffed health maintenance organizations. These are organized settings in which pharmacists work in an interdisciplinary fashion with physicians, nurses, and other professionals to provide care. "

A Health-System Pharmacist is a licensed professionals with at least five years of highly specialized pharmacy education. They often have completed doctoral degrees in pharmacy (Pharm. D.) and post-graduate residency programs that make them the nation’s medication-use experts. Their responsibilities (as defined by ASHP) often include:

"Evaluating new medications to recommend those that are safest and most effective for individual patients."

"Advising physicians and other health care personnel about medication selection and administration."

"Counseling patients directly to help them use their medication wisely."

"Monitoring every stage of medication therapy to improve all aspects of effectiveness."

"Providing crucial quality checks to detect and prevent harmful drug interactions or reactions and potential mistakes."

"Working under sterile conditions to combine injectible medications with fluids to create compounds that patients receive intravenously."

"Supervising the dispensing and distribution of medication."

"Obtaining and maintaining supplies of medications that meet quality standards for purity and effectiveness and managing the proper storage of these products to ensure freshness and potency."

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