Dimitris:
The answers to your questions are that this is quite variable from one
institution to the next. In the US, there are quite a number of hospitals
where the clinical pharmacists are financially supported by clinical medical
departments rather than the hospital pharmacy department, and often report
administratively to the head of a service (e.g. cardiology, general surgery,
medicine, Hem/Onc). Most, though report to the Pharmacy service. It can
certainly be advantageous financially, depending on how the institution is
financed, to have clinical pharmacists that report to a different dept. - thus
giving the idea that the pharmacy's budget is not full of personnel costs. It
is also a recognition by the medical groups of the financial worthiness of
having a pharmacist on their payroll. I have visited hospitals in the UK
where
this is the case as well, and the hard work of clinical pharmacists in proving
their worth to medical depts. has paid off in the provision of more funds to
hire additional clinical pharmacy specialists. In many of these instances,
the
medical depts. pay the money to the pharmacy, who then hires and manages all
pharmacists in the faciltiy.
In addition, in the US, there are a number of pharmacists who are employed by
the outpatient offices of physicians, as well as a number who also work for
themselves in providing cognitive services, no distribution or selling of
product.
If you are further interested in this subject, email me back and I will
provide
some references on reimbursement of clinical pharmacy services.
Best wishes:
Roger Lander (email below in my signature lines)
On Tue, 26 Jan 1999 09:01:25 +0000 Dimitris Panidis <dpani@aias.net> wrote:
> Dear Sir,
>
> I would like to have some information about the organization of a hospital
> pharmacy with Clinical Pharmacists working in it. Do the Clinical
> Pharmacists work under the auspices of the hospital pharmacy or do they work
> independently in a separate department of the hospital ?
> I would also like to get informed about the number of Clinical Pharmacists
> per hospital bed that are usually employed and the hours interval they work
> every day in the hospital.
>
> Thank you in advance
>
> Yours faithfully
> Dimitris Panidis
>
----------------------
Roger Lander, Pharm.D., BCPS, FASHP, FCCP
Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacy Practice
McWhorter School of Pharmacy
Samford University
Birmingham, AL 35229
Phone: 205-870-2102
FAX: 205-870-2669
email: rdlander@samford.edu
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