Today marks World Pharmacist Day, Beijing United Family Hospital & Clinics wants to thank all our pharmacists for the hard work they do in caring for patients on a daily basis. You'll find a pharmacy in each of our hospital buildings for your convenience. While everyone is familiar with the doctor's efforts in their care, below, learn about our pharmacists' efforts to guarantee your safety and health with the treatments our doctors prescribe.
Derrick* was a long way from home. He was traveling abroad in Beijing for business when he started experiencing severe chest pains – a recurring problem. By the time he sought treatment at Beijing United Family Hospital, the UFH network’s flagship hospital, he was in severe distress and unable to communicate with the nursing staff. Since he was traveling, he had brought many of his medications with him. The problem? None of them were kept in their original packaging.
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Enter the United Family Pharmacy team. They called his family and interviewed them about the medications Derrick was taking – part of a service we offer called medication reconciliation. This is a critical pharmacy process that helps our pharmacists provide superior care for our patients. Reviewing each hospitalized patient's medication, including herbs and health supplements, to ensure accurate and comprehensive information is communicated across the country or the world, a unique service offered by United Family in China.
Our pharmacy's mission is to provide “quality patient care by optimizing medication use and ensuring safety." This mission can be divided into six critical steps of medication management, which the department follows to give our patients the very best in pharmaceutical care.
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1) Procurement
United Family maintains a comprehensive list of medications for our physicians to prescribe.
How does the pharmacy team choose what goes on the list? The decision is based on 1) evidenced-based efficacy, 2) safety, and 3) cost-effectiveness.
If a physician wants to add medication to the list, they must get approval from the United Family Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee, a group of our clinical personnel. We expedite our approval and procurement process by providing our patients with the latest innovative drug regimens approved in China. United Family prefers to use the safest drugs available, we often work with joint-ventures or imported brands whose manufacturing and testing practices ensure high-quality pharmaceutical products. We even go to the factory floor for certain products like vaccines to examine their production line. This is an additional independent verification step to ensure our pharmacy products are safe and reliable.
2) Storage
Quality is compromised if a medication is mishandled, so appropriate storage and transportation of medications is crucial. That is why United Family only works with suppliers that apply the best logistics and quality-control procedures available. For medications, shelf life is a big concern. that is why our pharmacy only stocks enough to last two to four weeks. This way, we ensure that we are giving our patients the best-quality medications possible.
How do we keep stock from dipping too low while ensuring quality? Our pharmacy keeps its stock level in a computerized network and monitors inventory closely. If our stock starts running low, we have an established network of suppliers, including hospitals within the UFH network, that can deliver the items we need within a few hours.
3) Ordering
How does United Family protect against adverse drug reactions or ordering the wrong medications? We utilize an integrated electronic healthcare information system, which keeps track of our patients’ health. Accessible across the UFH network, this clinical intelligence system alerts staff to possible adverse drug interactions and allergies patients may have.
What if you, like Derrick, routinely travel throughout China? Or, what if you live in Shanghai, and regularly visit Shanghai United Family Hospital in Puxi, but visit a UFH facility on a business trip to Tianjin? What was the exact brand of blood pressure medication you were taking? How severe was your reaction to penicillin? With our electronic medical records, the staff at Tianjin United Family Hospital (TJU) are able to access your information, perform medication reconciliation, and give you the correct dosage of the medications you need.
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Antibiotic over-prescription is also a major issue. A common practice in many Chinese hospitals is to give an antibiotic IV drip, whether antibiotics are needed or not. Over-utilization of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic ineffectiveness and the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria. Therefore, in the interest of public health, United Family established an Antibiotic Stewardship Team, a surveillance program that ensures the proper use of antibiotics throughout the UFH network. We routinely have much lower rates of antibiotic usage than many other hospitals do. The Chinese government recommends antibiotic usage in less than 20% of outpatient activity and less than 60% of inpatient activity. In 2022, United Family used antibiotics in 4.5% of outpatient activity and 31.5% in inpatient activity.
4) Preparing and dispensing
Our pharmacy team employs various measures to ensure that medications are prepared and dispensed accurately and efficiently. Prescriptions are double-checked, if not triple-checked, before being given to patients. Safety alerts are in place to warn Pharmacy staff about look-alike or sound-alike drugs as well as high-alert medications.
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At our hospitals, all chemotherapy and parenteral nutrition medications and most intravenous (IV) medications are prepared by trained pharmacy technicians in clean rooms, similar to operating theaters, and under strict protocols. We also standardize the IV orders so that the best dilution fluid and concentration are being utilized. This process provides safe and high-quality IVs and frees our nurses to care for their patients.
5) Administration
Everything about how the medication should be administered – including how much and how often – is documented in each patient’s electronic medical record, so that patients will receive accurate dosages of medications endorsed by their United Family care team, no matter the UFH facility they visit.
6) Monitoring
Because safety is the pharmacy team’s primary concern, United Family monitors each patient for side effects and treatment efficacy. UFH pharmacies also have a comprehensive surveillance system that will monitor for medication-related events, including drug recalls from manufacturers.
At United Family, our pharmacists are part of our patients’ – like Derrick’s – multidisciplinary healthcare team. We are here to answer your questions and help you feel confident about the medications you take. All our pharmacies are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to give you around-the-clock access to your medications. For environmental safety, UFH pharmacists are also happy to help you safely dispose of any extra or expired medications you may have.
*The patient's name has been changed to protect their privacy.
