The Pharmacy Department at William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital provides many important services to the staff and patients. The pharmacy hours are 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday and 7:30 am to 11:30 am on Saturday and Sunday. The pharmacists are also on-call after hours. The pharmacy operates with three pharmacists and two technicians to service all of our patients.
The pharmacy strategically manages daily filling operations in conjunction with clinical duties. Weekly carts are filled and exchanged for each of the units and are updated on a daily basis to reflect new and changed orders. To effectively complete this process, the staff constantly monitors for drug-drug, drug-disease, and drug-nutrient interactions, checks for appropriate dosages and directions, monitors drug allergies, and consults with the medical staff and nurses on a daily basis. The staff completes monthly unit inspections of medication rooms. Also, the pharmacy acts as a very reliable source of information for staff and patients on medications and disease states.
Clinical duties include monitoring of laboratory values, especially values that are directly related to medications such as clozapine and warfarin. The pharmacy distributes a monthly informational newsletter that updates staff of changes in medications, committee decisions, and reinforces policies within the hospital. Medication Use Evaluations are completed to analyze proper medication use and to ensure proper monitoring is being accomplished throughout the hospital. The pharmacy also contributes to the mentoring of pharmacy students and pharmacy residents through the West Virginia University's School of Pharmacy . The goal of this department is to provide excellent medication services, to share expert knowledge with staff and patients, to guide our future colleagues of students and residents in the direction of professionalism, and to continue to improve our department clinically so we can provide the best of care to our patients.