Pharmacists in the emergency department play a crucial role in upfront decision making around medicines for patients presenting with various medical conditions.
Cristina Roman, is the Lead Pharmacist at Alfred Emergency Trauma Centre. In her 12 years working in the Emergency Department, Cristina has established pharmacy services, and filled gaps in patient care with new models of care.
One of those models of care adopted by the US and other countries, is involving pharmacists for critically unwell patients that present to the emergency department.
Through her investigations, Cristina has considered how pharmacy services can impact stroke care, sepsis and trauma outcomes.
Thrombolytic therapy is crucial in ischaemic strokes, as every minute with a blood clot in the brain increases the risk of permanent disability for the patient.
Pharmacists can play a crucial role in identifying patients appropriate for thrombolysis and assisting with the administration of high-risk medications like thrombolysis for stroke patients. This can mean faster thrombolysis to eligible patients, shaping the scope of practice for the emergency medicine pharmacist.
In addition, her studies have also shown the involvement of pharmacists in sepsis calls improves time to antibiotic administration, particularly for patients in ICU care. The evidence has shown better outcomes for the most unwell patients.
Nurses and medical staff at Alfred Hospital are now actively pulling pharmacists into scenarios, highlighting the value and benefit of their involvement in patient care.
This model of care for emergency departments involving pharmacists has gained international interest and is continuing to expand.
Australian Health Journal spoke with Cristina Roman and Lisa Bremner, Advanced Training Resident Pharmacist at Alfred Hospital Emergency Trauma Centre.
-
Values in Workplace Culture
Professor Sabe Sabesan, is the Clinical Dean of the Townsville Regional Medical Training network incorporating the Townsville Hospital and Health Services and the Townsville Clinical School of the James Cook University and the director of the department of Medical oncology at the Townsville Cancer Centre, Townsville Hospital.
The Professor recently wrote, “Workforce wellness and engagement have become buzzwords in healthcare settings since there is an intimate relationship between staff wellbeing and performance of the healthcare system. Wellness initiatives such as wellness champions and wellness committees have been set up in response to emerging workforce mental health issues. These are largely reactive rather than being proactive in addressing or preventing the root cause of mental health issues.”
-
Hair’s-breadth endoscopes to detect plaque
This coming World Heart Day (29th September 2021), Australian Health Journal’s People in Health Care series, releases a segment on Dr Jiawen Li.
Dr Jiawen Li is an inventor and highly adaptable engineer leading the intravascular imaging program at the Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS). She has developing an imaging device can be inserted into blood vessels to provide high quality 3D images to help scientists better understand the causes of heart attack and heart disease progression, and could lead to improved treatment and prevention.
-
Empowering underprivileged communities with sustainable health
Dr Gaj Panagoda, CEO of Xstitch Health, has a diverse medical background and is working to improve health systems for underprivileged communities. In the Australian Health Journal’s People In Health Care series, he talks about the changes needed in community-based care using a project based approach,
According to Dr Panagoda, there is a need for a shift towards community-based care and collaboration with stakeholders in the healthcare system, and the potential to create a new kind of socially conscious, inspired, community-informed medical specialist is the future of medical specialty care.
