ASHP Announces 2015 Best Practices Award Winners

Press Release

ASHP bestowed its Best Practices Award in Health-System Pharmacy to six pharmacy teams during ASHP's 50th Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition in New Orleans. The award, which is sponsored in cooperation with Amgen, recognizes pharmacists who demonstrate leadership in enhancing patient care and other areas of pharmacy practice.

ASHP established the Best Practices Award in 1999 to recognize and foster innovation in pharmacy practice.

“These outstanding practitioners bring new thinking and perspectives to pharmacy practice and patient care,” said ASHP CEO Paul W. Abramowitz, Pharm.D., Sc.D. (Hon.), FASHP. “The innovative systems these teams developed will serve as models for other pharmacists seeking to improve pharmacy practice and patient care in all healthcare settings.”

This year’s winners are:

Advancing Pharmacy Practice in the Continuum of Care: Development and Implementation of a Centralized Comprehensive Refill Authorization Program in an Academic Health Care System, University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City

Matthew H. Rim, Pharm.D., M.S.; Karen C. Thomas, Pharm.D., Ph.D., DABAT; Brittanie Hatch, Pharm.D., M.S.; Thomas J. Davies, Pharm.D.; Lauren Holesh, Pharm.D.; Michael Kelly, R.Ph., M.B.A.; and Linda S. Tyler, Pharm.D., FASHP

Clinical and Financial Benefits of Smart Pump-Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Interoperability at a Regional Health-System Hospital, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, Montana (SCL Health System, Denver)

Jennifer Biltoft, Pharm.D., BCPS; Lonnye Finneman, Pharm.D.; Kelley Curtis, B.S., Pharm.D., M.B.A.; Cindy James, Pharm.D.; Leigh Scherer, CPhT; Joan Thullbery, R.N., B.S.N.; and SCL Epic-Alaris Interoperability Team

Expanding Pharmacy Practice Through the Utilization of Longitudinal Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Students, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin — Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee

Sara Revolinski, Pharm.D., BCPS; Anne Zechlinski, Pharm.D., BCPS; Todd Karpinski, Pharm.D., M.S.; Philip Brummond, Pharm.D., M.S.; Thomas S. Achey, Pharm.D.; and Brooke Fraser, Pharm.D.

Impact of an Integrated, Closed-loop, Pharmacy-led Oral Chemotherapy Program on Clinical and Financial Outcomes, University of North Carolina Medical Center, Chapel Hill

Benyam Muluneh, Pharm.D., BCOP, CPP; Molly Schneider, Pharm.D.; Aimee Faso, Pharm.D., BCOP, CPP; John Valgus, Pharm.D., BCOP, M.H.A.; Lindsey Amerine, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS; Rowell Daniels, Pharm.D., M.S.; and Scott Savage, Pharm.D., M.S.

Impact of Pharmacist Management of Pain, Agitation, and Delirium Through Multidisciplinary ABCDE Bundle Rounds, Florida Hospital, Orlando

Patricia Louzon, Pharm.D., BCPS; Heath Jennings, Pharm.D., M.B.A., FASHP, BCPS; Mahmood Ali, M.D.; Dina Ibrahim, Pharm.D., BCPS; Seema Patel, Pharm.D., BCPS; Ramy Girgis, Pharm.D., BCPS; Phil Biddlecome, Pharm.D.; Marijo Kraisinger, Pharm.D.; Julie Vincent, M.B.A., M.S.N.; Patricia Celano, M.S.N., R.N.; and Tom Berlin, D.H.Sc., M.Sc., RRT

Implementing a Layered Learning Model in a Small, Community Hospital: Economic and Patient Satisfaction Outcomes, University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, Chardon, Ohio, and Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Pharmacy, Rootstown, Ohio

Mate M. Soric, Pharm.D., BCPS; Jason E. Glowczewski, Pharm.D., M.B.A.; and Rachael Lerman, Pharm.D., BCPS

Full summaries of this year’s winning programs are available online.

About ASHP

ASHP represents pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory settings. The organization’s more than 40,000 members include pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For over 70 years, ASHP has been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists advance healthcare, visit ASHP’s website, www.ashp.org, or its consumer website, www.SafeMedication.com.