Pharmacists at the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network provide care in a variety of settings:
- Ambulatory clinics
- Emergency department
- Inpatient central operations
- Inpatient decentralized
- Outpatient infusion clinic
- Outpatient oncology clinics
- Outpatient retail, home infusion and specialty
- Perioperative
Other services include:
- Center for medication use
- Stewardship programs
- Antimicrobial
- Anticoagulation
- Pain
- Investigational drug services
- Pharmacy informatics
Outpatient Pharmacy Services
Froedtert Health Solutions LLC encompasses Froedtert retail and specialty pharmacy services, Froedtert home infusion services and the PBM Vertu Rx. Pharmacists provide medications to patients at five outpatient pharmacies located on the Froedtert Hospital campus as well as nine locations throughout the system and community. Froedtert Pharmacies offer immunizations, free home delivery of medications and medication savings program. Pharmacists practicing in all outpatient areas have access to the Electronic Health Record.
The Home Delivery and Specialty Pharmacy provides medication management services such as monitoring for side effects, adherence assessment, medication synchronization and patient teaching. The medication access team improves patient access to medication through enrollment in patient assistance programs, completing prior authorizations and maintaining a drug repository. Froedtert & MCW health network is a URAC accredited specialty pharmacy.
Froedtert Home Infusion Pharmacy opened in July of 2017 and serves patients across the state of Wisconsin. Pharmacists in home infusion provide IV antibiotics, fluids, electrolytes, parenteral nutrition and inotropes. Collaborative Practice Agreements have been developed to allow pharmacists to provide clinical monitoring for patients receiving care.
Ambulatory Clinics
Pharmacists are integrated in over 28 ambulatory clinics across the Froedtert System. Ambulatory clinic pharmacists provide care to patients with a variety of chronic conditions through the use of Collaborative Practice Agreements with physicians. Care is delivered to patients through office visits and through virtual visits over the phone or using video technology and through population management programs such as the Ambulatory Diabetes Outreach Program. Patients enrolled in this program have experienced demonstrated significant improvements in A1C with pharmacist oversight. Ambulatory clinic pharmacists also collaborate with retail staff in order to ensure patient access to medications.
Ambulatory care clinics with pharmacist services include: Anemia, Anticoagulation, Behaivoral Health, Cardiology, Endocrine, Geriatrics, GI/Hepatology, Infectious Diseases, Infusion Clinic, Metabolic Syndromes, Neurology, Oncology, Primary Care, Pulmonary Clinic, Rheumatology, Sickle Cell, And Solid Organ Transplant.
Central Pharmacies and Sterile Products Compounding
The central pharmacies are staffed 24 hours a day, and use advanced technology to fill inpatient medication orders efficiently and safely. Froedtert central pharmacies use the latest prescription fulfillment technology that use barcode scanning at multiple points in the process to ensure accuracy in dispensing and inventory management.
Pharmacists in central pharmacies are responsible for ensuring the proper preparation of intravenous medications and verification of medication selection. Tech-check-tech and barcode-check-tech processes have been implemented for automated dispensing cabinet replenishment as well as first dose replenishment. Sterile products are compounded in multiple USP 800 compliant IV preparation rooms throughout the system. Photo capture technology is used as part of product checking in order to further improve safety.
Chemotherapy and supportive medications are prepared in the Cancer Center Pharmacy for inpatient and outpatient hematology/oncology areas. In 2020, a compounding robot was implemented at Froedtert Cancer Center Pharmacy to compound chemotherapy doses in order to improve accuracy and minimize potential for staff exposure to hazardous medications during compounding.
Decentralized Pharmacy Teams (Inpatient Pharmacists)
Pharmacists are an important part of the specialized inpatient care teams who provide comprehensive clinical services and patient education in the acute care setting. Pharmacists on inpatient teams participate in daily multidisciplinary and patient care rounds, verify physician orders, provide therapeutic drug monitoring, respond to medical emergencies (codes), conduct patient medication histories, perform medication reconciliation and provide discharge counseling. In some areas, decentralized technicians support pharmacists by assisting with admission medication histories and discharge planning.
Decentralized pharmacy teams provide services to a wide variety of medical services, including in Blood and Marrow Transplant, Neurosurgical Intensive Care, Surgical Intensive Care, Medical Intensive Care, Cardiovascular Intensive Care, Solid Organ Transplant, Adult Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Oncology, the Emergency Department and the Operating Room.
Center for Medication Use
The Center for Medication Use team promotes the safe, effective and fiscally responsible use of medications across the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin System. Core functions include maintaining a system-aligned formulary, continual monitoring of medication use patterns, vigilance of safe medication use, oversight of medication guidelines, protocols, collaborative practice agreements and clinical pathways, and development and maintenance of infusion pump libraries, drug information resources and communication tools. The Center also has specialized teams in the areas of anticoagulation, antimicrobial and pain stewardship to promote the safe and effective use of these agents.
Pharmacy Informatics
The pharmacists and technicians on our pharmacy informatics team are responsible for the design and maintenance of technology used throughout the organization to dispense medications and facilitate patient care.
Epic
Since 2004, Froedtert Health has used Epic to house its electronic health record. Providers enter medication orders using computerized order entry through Epic in both the inpatient and clinic settings. A core group of pharmacists working on the Epic Willow team focus on the build and maintenance of medication records, medication alerts and other clinical decision support tools. All pharmacists, nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers document within the Epic system, which gives the entire team access to information needed to care for patients. All inpatient medication orders are electronically transmitted via Epic to either the Central Pharmacy for filling and distribution or directly to automated dispensing cabinets (Pyxis™) located on each unit.
McKesson EnterpriseRx
All outpatient retail pharmacies on and off campus utilize a single medication dispensing software that links between pharmacy locations. EnterpriseRx manages resources and information centrally, in real time, for company-wide access and monitoring. EnterpriseRx uses workflow-based processing to enable retail pharmacies to increase prescription volume while enabling labor to be redeployed to facilitate new patient services.
Teaching and Precepting
The Froedtert Pharmacy Department partners with the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, Concordia University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy and University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy as a training site for experiential education. Froedtert Health offers a wide-variety of introductory and advanced practice experiences, including our Student Scholars program where P4 students complete the majority of their advanced pharmacy practice experiences at either Froedtert Hospital or Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital.
There are many opportunities for pharmacists and residents to teach, precept and mentor pharmacy students. Froedtert & MCW health network offers practice sites for faculty members from both the Medical College of Wisconsin Pharmacy School and Concordia University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy.
ASHP Best Practices Award
In October 2015, the Froedtert Hospital Pharmacy Department was honored by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists with one of six annual Best Practice Awards in Health System Pharmacy for their submission entitled "Expanding Pharmacy Practice through the Utilization of Longitudinal Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Students." This award program is a national competition that recognizes innovation and outstanding leadership in health-system pharmacy.
This is Froedtert Hospital's fourth best practices award. The first, titled "Improving Patient Safety through Implementation of a Pharmacy Conducted Admission Medication History and Multidisciplinary Discharge Medication Reconciliation Process," was awarded in 2007. The second, titled "Project PRIMED (Pharmacist Reconciliation and Medication Education at Discharge)," was awarded in 2011. The third, titled "Institutional and Patient Benefits of a Comprehensive Medication Prior Authorization Service" was awarded in 2013.
We offer the excitement of working at an academic medical center, where teaching and research are integral to patient care. Clinical pharmacists are important members of the team, teaching medical residents, pharmacy students and pharmacy residents. If you are interested in using your skills, growing, learning and being part of an exceptional pharmacy team, we invite you to apply to one of our pharmacy residency programs!