Ochsner Health Pharmacy Nationally Recognized for Excellence in Innovation by Vizient

Newswise — NEW ORLEANS, La. – Ochsner Health is proud to receive 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, Nevada.

The Vizient Pharmacy Vision Awards honor members of its pharmacy program for accomplishments and contributions to pharmacy practice amid some of the most challenging times in healthcare. As healthcare continues to change to meet the needs of patients, pharmacists’ relevance and significant contributions are becoming more notable. Through the Pharmacy Vision Awards, Vizient celebrates the excellent work of pharmacy teams in response to this everchanging environment.

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.

“This partnership between nursing and pharmacy is the kind of innovative design thinking we need to respond to our current staffing challenges,” said Tracey Moffatt, executive consultant and former system chief nursing officer and system vice president of quality, Ochsner Health. “Our patients and our teams are more productive and engaged when they work together to optimize the skills and expertise each bring to the table. I’m so proud of this this team-based care delivery model and the staff who worked hard to operationalize and optimize the program for the benefit of our patients and our organization.”

By creating innovative staffing models that leverage the strengths of different members of the interdisciplinary care team, enhanced patient care with decreased reliance on contract labor is a reality for 2023 and beyond. Ochsner is paving the way forward in addressing challenging healthcare issues.

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About Ochsner Health

Ochsner Health is an integrated healthcare system with a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate. Celebrating more than 80 years of service, it leads nationally in cancer care, cardiology, neurosciences, liver and kidney transplants and pediatrics, among other areas. Ochsner is consistently named both the top hospital and top children’s hospital in Louisiana by U.S. News & World Report. The not-for-profit organization is inspiring healthier lives and stronger communities through its Healthy State initiative, a bold and collaborative plan to realize a healthier Louisiana. Its focus is on preventing diseases and providing patient-centered care that is accessible, affordable, convenient and effective. Ochsner Health pioneers new treatments, deploys emerging technologies and performs groundbreaking research, including 4,000 patients enrolled in 685 clinical studies in 2022. It has more than 37,000 employees and over 4,700 employed and affiliated physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties. It operates 46 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Gulf South; and its cutting-edge Connected Health digital medicine program is caring for patients beyond its walls. In 2022, Ochsner Health treated more than 1.4 million people from every state and 62 countries. As Louisiana’s top healthcare educator of physicians, Ochsner Health and its partners educate thousands of healthcare professionals annually. To learn more, visit https://www.ochsner.org/.