Upstate celebrates Pharmacy Week
By Darcy DiBiaseUpstate Medical University celebrates Pharmacy Week October 22-26. Representatives will be available to hand out information to patients and visitors to help keep track of current medications and how to take medications correctly. They will also have handouts for health care providers on best practices for prescription writing.
"The Pharmacy department does much more than just count pills," said Andrew Burgdorf, PharmD. "Members of the Pharmacy department work closely as part of interdisciplinary teams on patient rounds, we assist in clinical policy development for better patient care, and we create medication safety guidelines for healthcare providers."
The Downtown Campus pharmacy department is made up of 50 pharmacists, 46 pharmacy technicians, and four support staff. This team validates more than 3,000 electronic medication orders per day and documents more than 3,200 pharmacist interventions per month involving therapy optimization and medication safety.
The department utilizes pharmacy technicians to prepare sterile products and other medications including total parenteral nutrition. While the department primarily supports clinical services, it also trains eight post graduate pharmacy residents per year and serves as a rotation site for pharmacy students from other institutions.
In addition to clinical responsiblities, members of the department also conduct research, give educational presentations and author scholarly articles for other members of the medical community.
