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The Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacist’s Commitment Statement on Standardize 4 Safety The Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP) pledges support for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Standardize 4 Safety initiative. Standardize 4 Safety aims to decrease the variability in medication compound concentrations among health systems and pharmacies to minimize preventable patient harm. Locally, the major pediatric health systems across Ohio have partnered to standardize enteral medication compound concentrations, as children frequently require specialized medication compounding for appropriate medication dosing. OSHP has a sincere responsibility to this initiative and is honored to endorse and facilitate this multi-system partnership. It is important for the initiative to align multidisciplinary healthcare professions to address the challenges and associated disparities in the continuum of patient care. The mission of OSHP is to optimize patient health by advocating for the advancement of pharmacy practice to promote comprehensive, quality care across the health-care continuum. Pharmacists are medication stewards and committed to patient safety. As accessible healthcare providers, pharmacists are essential to interprofessional collaboration with regulators, other healthcare professionals, patients, families, and caregivers. OSHP endorses the need for standardized intravenous and oral liquid medication concentrations to prevent medication errors and optimize the transition of care for patients. OSHP has had a longstanding commitment to educational programming, awareness, and implementation of services to promote safe medication prescribing and use. In April 1990, the OSHP House of Delegates published guidelines aimed to optimize the approach of ethical decision making in patient-centered care. This position stands to protect the welfare of patients by promoting safe and effective medication use for all patients. Further, in May 2004, OSHP created a code of ethics for pharmacists, advocating for respect, honesty, collaboration, and compliance to regulations on a consistent basis. This code is fundamental to pharmacists’ philosophy of practice in advocating for the safest and most effective environment for patients. Most recently, OSHP’s House of Delegates published a position statement in May 2019 focused on reporting medical errors and adopting a just culture. This support proves OSHP’s dedication to promoting medication safety through standardization of error reporting and developing cultures of safety. In demonstration of OSHP’s commitment to medication safety, OSHP routinely provides medication safety educational programming to its members. OSHP featured sessions at the 80th Annual Meeting in 2019 advocating for safe medication prescribing and use. These presentations, including “Use Your Influence: Improve Physician Collaboration and Medication Safety Design” and “Population Health: Pharmacy’s Role in the Health System - Real World Impact,” exemplify OSHP’s dedication to educating our membership body about how to best promote and execute safe medication prescribing and use. Additionally, the Medication Safety Award presented at the OSHP Annual Meeting recognizes an individual and/or organization that has made outstanding effort and has progressed towards furthering mediation safety in health-system pharmacy practice. Through this statement, The Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists aims to: ● Advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to standardize enteral and intravenous medication concentrations to optimize medication safety and transitions of care for pediatric patients and patients of all ages ● Provide ongoing pharmacist and technician-directed education to ensure safe medication practices for enteral and intravenous medication compounding ● Elevate and implement Standardize 4 Safety’s initiative to create, test, publicize, and support the adoption of these national standardized medication concentrations ● Endorse and support the collaborative efforts of Ohio’s pediatric health-systems in standardizing enteral medication compound concentrations OSHP seeks to take an active role in implementing effective efforts to communicate the mission of the Standardize 4 Safety initiative to pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other healthcare professionals. OSHP will work collaboratively to improve approaches to optimizing the standardization of enteral and intravenous compounded medications. By standardizing compounding practices, we will be one step closer to achieving zero patient harm. We look forward to joining forces with Ohio’s pediatric health-system partnership, ASHP, and the Food and Drug Administration to amplify and align all of our individual organizational efforts to standardize enteral and intravenous compounded medications in the effort to promote safe medication use and prevent medication errors. Approved by the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists Board of Directors, November 20, 2019 | Dear National Academy of Medicine Collaborative: The Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP), a state-affiliate organization of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) is writing this letter of support for the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. As one of the most active state affiliate organizations, we recognize the burdens felt by pharmacists, residents, students and technicians in our profession. We seek to provide programming and opportunities for recognition of burnout and strategies to mitigate and provide excellent patient care in light of this national epidemic. Many of our employer and academic organizations are also working in synergy on this initiative and we realize it is not limited to our profession and seek inter-professional collaboration of this important initiative. OSHP represents approximately 1,300 pharmacists, students, and technicians with an interest in hospital and health-system practice. Founded in 1939 as the Ohio Society of Hospital Pharmacists, it is the oldest organization in the United States representing that segment of pharmacy practice. Please accept this letter as our commitment to the mission of the collaborative. Warmest Regards, Rebecca A. Taylor, PharmD, MBA, BCPS Division Director, OSHP Legal Affairs rebeccataylorpharmd@gmail.com |