MARCH / APRIL 2007

FEATURE

Team members from HMI, Acibadem, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital

Acibadem sees pharmacists as integral part of patient safety initiatives

Acibadem Healthcare Group continues to work with HMI on a wide range of programs focused on raising the standard of patient care throughout its network. In past years these programs have focused on updating best practices for physicians and developing nurse leadership. Most recently, pharmacy professionals from Acibadem came to Boston for a week of activities focused on identifying strategies for improving medication safety and overall pharmacy performance in Acibadem’s growing network of hospitals.

The three-person team was led by Irma Kokbas, Acibadem’s pharmacy coordinator. Although based at Acibadem’s Bakirkoy hospital, Kokbas is responsible for all of the network’s pharmacies. She was joined by Sibel Uysal, a pharmacist in Kadikoy Hospital, and Medine Budak, Acibadem patient safety coordinator.

The program was centered at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where the team observed pharmacy best practices and consulted with key leaders involved in medication safety initiatives. In addition, the group explored the information technology and processes used in all aspects of medication management, from prescription and administration on the clinical side to the proper stocking, packaging, storage, and distribution of medicines. The program also included visits to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital, where the team met with pharmacy leaders to learn more about outpatient services and models of continuous quality improvement.  

The program was coordinated by Rebekah Sherman, a doctoral candidate in the pharmacy program at Northeastern University, with consultation from an HMI team that included Elizabeth Brown, RN, MSN, director of clinical services; Albert Gillis, RTA, director of health care facilities development; and Michael Kavanagh, regional manager for East Asia. Ms. Sherman and the team developed a set of activities and interactions aligned with the goals expressed by Ms. Kokbas. William Churchill, MS, RPh, executive director of pharmacy services at BWH, collaborated closely with the team to design program modules, and assembled an expert team from his hospital to provide the Acibadem group with a comprehensive tour of the inner workings of high-quality hospital pharmacy services.

The Acibadem team observed inpatient and outpatient pharmacies at the Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals, participated in rounds with a clinical pharmacist (a role that does not currently exist at Acibadem), and received tutorials on e-based drug information references and on hardware and software used to automate pharmacy processes. They also met with key opinion leaders in the hospitals to learn about how medication safety and pharmacy committees are structured to manage continuous quality improvement and drive best practices.

“Along with many practical ideas for how to improve pharmacy operations at Acibadem, we gained insight into the role of the pharmacist in patient safety,” said Ms. Kokbas. “We now have many recommendations for how to establish medication safety processes, including automation devices and medical informatics, that will be very valuable as the Acibadem network continues to grow.”

Ms. Sherman, who is in her final year of study, spent six weeks at HMI and contributed to programs for Acibadem, Asan Medical Center, and Lebanese American University. “My rotation at HMI gave me the opportunity to explore alternatives to the most common pharmacy career paths, retail and hospital-based work, and gain exposure to the challenges being addressed in other health care systems,” she said.

Her next step will probably be a residency program, where she will pursue additional clinical training. For the Acibadem team, the months ahead will include sharing what they observed with clinical and administrative leaders in the network, and beginning to chart a course for developing new strategies for pharmacy operations, implementing new processes, and getting more involved with patient safety and quality assurance initiatives.

“Acibadem’s commitment to providing professional development opportunities for its nursing and pharmacy professionals proves that they understand well the most basic principle of quality and patient safety improvement: that it is the responsibility of everyone in the hospital,” said Brown.

Copyright 2007 Harvard Medical International