Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
This project is funded by AHRQ's Partnership in Implementing Patient Safety (PIPS) grant portfolio. The grant program was recently described in an AHRQ press release: "17 toolkits, developed by AHRQ-funded experts who specialize in patient safety research, are free, publicly available, and can be adapted to most health care settings. The toolkits range from checklists to help reconcile medications when patients are discharged from the hospital to processes to enhance effective communication among caregivers and with patients to toolkits to help patients taking medications."
For more information, visit [AHRQ PIPS Press Release]. To browse the available patient safety tools, visit [AHRQ PIPS Patient Safety Toolkits].
ASHP Research and Education Foundation
American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
ASHP is the 30,000-member national
professional association that represents pharmacists who practice in
hospitals, health maintenance organizations, long-term care facilities,
home care, and other components of health care systems. For more than 60
years, ASHP has helped pharmacists in hospitals and health systems
improve medication use and enhance patient safety. ASHP, which has a
long history of medication error prevention efforts, believes that the
mission of pharmacists is to help people make the best use of medicines.
Assisting pharmacists in fulfilling this mission is ASHP's primary
objective. ASHP has extensive publishing and educational programs
designed to help members improve their professional practice, and it is
the national accrediting organization for pharmacy residency and
pharmacy technician training programs.
[link to website]
ASHP has supported emergency pharmacists in numerous ways,
including:
1. An Emergency Care Section Advisory Group (SAG) to guide
ASHP's activities in the area of emergency care.
2. An Emergency Pharmacist List Server - this service is currently open
to the public. To join, visit
[this link].
3. A policy document entitled "ASHP Statement on Pharmacy
Services to the Emergency Department." To read this document, visit
[this link].
4. The ASHP Research and Education Foundation's Director
of Research and Program Development, Daniel J. Cobaugh, PharmD, FAACT,
DABAT, is a member of the advisory board for this project, and has been
a critical link to the national clinical pharmacist community.
5. ASHP and the ASHP Foundation recently collaborated with the
University of Rochester, Johns Hopkins University, and Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center to develop the ED Patient Care Impact Program. Twenty
pharmacists were selected, through a competitive application process, to
participate in this program which provides consultative services for
developing an ED pharmacist program. More information can be found by
visiting
[this link].
6. ASHP has presented numerous emergency care related
programs at their national conferences, including the ASHP Midyear
Clinical Meeting in December 2007. These included sessions on provision
of pharmacy services in the ED.