Carter Health Care - OKC
Community Care, Home Infusion - Tulsa
Guardian Health Systems (Available during Spring Semester only) - OKC
A rotation with a home health pharmacy provides the pharmacy practice student with the opportunity to experience learning opportunities that were only discussed in the normal curriculum of pharmacy school. The home health company functions as a combined team of professions composed of pharmacists, nurses, administrators, and support personnel. They all play important roles in the difficult task of providing pharmaceutical and nursing care to patients that receive treatment at home that was only available in a hospital setting not very long ago. These treatments include total parenteral nutrition, total enteral nutrition, IV antibiotic therapy, chemotherapy, hydration therapy and other specialized treatments. During a rotation in a home health company the pharmacy practice student will have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of the home health care system.
You will have the opportunity to greatly increase your technical ability in the preparation of IV products using sterile techniques and the operation of an IV preparation room and the equipment used to prepare sterile products. You will greatly increase your knowledge of the equipment, pumps, and devices used in home health care. You will learn how to prepare temperature sensitive medications for shipment both to local and distance locations. You will work with pharmacy technicians and realize how indispensable they are in the home health setting.
During a rotation in home health you will utilize patient’s charts to review prescription orders to ensure appropriate therapy is maintained and reduce drug interactions and then enter them on the computer for processing. You will also have the opportunity to use the charts to review clinical information such as lab data to monitor the progress of the patients drug therapy.
You will also learn the importance of having people who are trained in the area of reimbursement and dealing with third party payers who can work the administrative side of patient’s cases quickly to ensure that a therapy is covered before resources are committed. You will also learn how the inventory control system in the home health care works and how everyone in the system including techs, pharmacists, nurses, administrative, and support personnel are involved in making it run efficiently.
A home health care rotation is a valuable selective rotation. You will not only experience a specialized area of pharmacy that is only discussed in pharmacy school but you will also get the opportunity to use clinical information to deliver pharmaceutical care, increase your technical pharmacy skills, and get a valuable lesson in pharmacy administration and dealing with third party payers.