With a large non-sterile compounding room and a USP 797/800 compliant cleanroom, we are able to provide many sterile and non-sterile medication options.  Our residency-trained pharmacists are happy to discuss any desired formulations and determine the feasibility and economic viability of preparing high quality compounds in-hospital.  We also provide injectable chemotherapy preparation in our negative pressure cleanroom in compliance with USP 800 safety guidelines. 

With a technician specializing in inventory management, we are able to maintain a diverse formulary at appropriate levels to ensure appropriate therapy is available for all species. As medication inventory specialists, we are able to monitor for and address potential backorder issues.  For critical medications, our veterinary-trained pharmacists work with faculty from the affected services to develop alternative treatment plans to ensure patient care isn’t compromised. 

Our veterinary pharmacists are happy to address questions posed by referring veterinarians, clients and faculty, staff and students at the College of Veterinary Medicine. 

While error prevention is a hospital-wide concern, medications are frequently involved in errors and adverse events. Therefore, a pharmacist is actively involved in the management of the incident reporting form as well as the Quality Improvement Committee and Morbidity and Mortality Rounds.  The entire Medication Dispensary staff is committed to ensuring that each error is reported by one or more of the people involved with the case.  Only through determining what is happening and evaluating the associated system issues will we be able to prevent reoccurrence. This also serves as a platform for documenting drug interactions and adverse events for reporting to the FDA which supports patient care beyond the walls of our hospital. 

Veterinary pharmacy concepts are essential to teach to veterinary and pharmacy students.  Therefore, the medication dispensary staff assist with this through numerous didactic, clinical, and incidental teaching opportunities to all four years of the veterinary curriculum as well as house officers and staff.  The Dispensary also serves as an APPE site for multiple pharmacy schools to provide clinical rotation experiences to pharmacy students. From the aspect of educating those outside of the teaching hospital, our pharmacists write educational columns for our referring veterinarian newsletter about current questions/issues relating to medications. We also have a collection of publicly available client handouts and informational videos to assist with medication counseling. 

Research studies and grant applications can be leveled up by working with a veterinary pharmacist.  Our pharmacists assist with background research, identification of funding, input during the grant application process, study design suggestions, drug procurement and preparation and manuscript development. 

Regulatory compliance is essential and in the high-volume veterinary teaching hospital environment there is often grey area.  Our pharmacists work closely with hospital administration and University-wide and state agencies to ensure compliance.  There are also efforts to ensure our students are educated on regulatory compliance topics that will be relevant in practice. A VTH pharmacist is also actively involved with ISVMA through the Regulatory Committee which involves evaluating and providing input on potential stances for the organization to take on proposed legislation.   

Clinical pharmacists are starting to gain traction in veterinary medicine. Our clinical staff pharmacist supports faculty and staff, house officers, and students by reviewing patient charts for appropriate medication therapy, correct doses, and dosing intervals. They are also present at internal medicine rounds in order to answer pharmacy focused questions.  

Our medication dispensary is excited to continue developing our antimicrobial stewardship program. We currently have a “high-risk antibiotics” form that is required to be filled out prior to dispensing certain antibiotics. A VTH pharmacist currently chairs the antimicrobial stewardship committee that is working towards developing focused guidelines, creating continuing education materials, and promoting awareness of preventing antimicrobial resistance in the veterinary setting. Review or download the guidebook.