Working in New Ways: CRMH Pharmacy
During the pandemic, our Pharmacy team has been working both on-site and remotely, finding ways to meet the needs of our patients.
While doing so, they’ve risen to COVID-19’s challenges with efficiency and creativity—whether coming up with a solution for a hospital-wide issue or tapping in to artistic talents on the team to enhance their pandemic-era hiring process.
A Clever Solution
We all know that we need to have masks on from the moment we set foot in the hospital. But earlier in the pandemic, this was sometimes a challenge—simply because the masks tended to be stored in each department’s work area. Staff would arrive at the beginning of a shift and have to walk, unmasked, through the building to their work area where that day’s new mask was waiting.
The on-site Pharmacy team members came up with a simple process to solve the problem:
- Right before leaving at the end of a shift, each staff member places a clean mask in a paper bag and takes it home with them.
- When they arrive at the hospital for the start of their next shift, they have a clean mask ready to go before entering the building.
This process worked so well, it was soon shared with other departments during a Clinical Huddle. Now, the Pharmacy team’s solution has been adopted across the hospital.
The Power of Communication
A big reason the Pharmacy department has handled COVID’s challenges so creatively is the emphasis they’ve put on encouraging all team members to share suggestions.
When the department first moved to its remote/on-site hybrid work model, they used a daily survey to collect comments and suggestions from team members working remotely. During the earlier days of the pandemic, this survey was reviewed at least weekly to address concerns quickly. The survey asked pharmacists questions such as:
- How busy they were on a shift
- What activities they were accomplishing
- Their level of communication with the on-site team
"Getting daily feedback from remote team members was extremely helpful during the first few months of changes," says Jason Hoffman, pharmacy director.
A Hidden Talent on the Team
It turns out that, in addition to their skills in patient care and pharmaceutical science, our Pharmacy team also has a knack for video production.
Pandemic or not, our teams have to hire new people when needed. Currently, the Pharmacy department has an Infection Control-approved interviewing process in place, bringing candidates on-site only at the final stage. The team decided to create a walk-through tour video of the department to give applicants a better feel for the job and the team. The team created the video entirely themselves: Clint Atwater, pharmacy operations manager, did the editing and Andy Bowyer, pharmacy technician, did the voice-over work.
You can watch their video here:
Thinking Beyond the Problems of Today
Like many departments, the Pharmacy team worked with Infection Control to standardize a new cleaning process in the face of COVID-19, setting up their own cleaning/containment area in the pharmacy and keeping used trays and boxes separate from the refill area. While doing so, they thought beyond COVID-19.
“We wanted to take into account other isolation infections—for example, C. diff and influenza—so we took it many steps further to address any isolation area and the unknowns of medications returned to us,” Jason says. “We wanted to think beyond the problems of today and look forward to how we can continue to provide the best and safest possible care for all of our patients, now and into the future.”
To learn more, contact Jason Hoffman at jahoffman@carilionclinic.org or 540-853-0580.
