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Show Chemistry Key to Job, New Pharmacist Says What do students in pharmacy study, he was asked. "Chemistry, chemistry and more chemistry,"' answered Garfield Memorial Hospital's pharmacist, the first to serve on a full time basis for the Panguitch facility, unusual for a ' small hospital. Scott Scoffield grew up in Heber City where he graduated from high school before moving to Minnesota. He returned to attend Brigham Scott Scoff ield Young University where his original interest in veterinary medicine led him to concentrate on zoology. Changing interests took him to the University of Utah's school of pharmacy where the university's five-year pharmacy program is reputed to be one of the nation's finest. Where most universities require a full six years before turning out a full-fledged pharmacist, the U of U does it in five with a concentrated study program which graduates some 50 registered pharmacists each year. The full time pharmacist program at Garfield Memorial Hospital is a pilot program for the hospital which has contracted such services in the past on a part-time basis. Intermountain Health Care, the corporation which operates the hospital, initiated the program at Garfield Memorial under which Scoffield functions the greater part of the day as a pharmacist and also serves the institution as purchasing agent. IHC is carefully monitoring the program and will expand it to at least six other hospitals if it proves successful. Scoffield serves as a member of IHC's Pharmacy Adv-siory Committee and makes monthly trips to Salt Lake City to meet with other members of the committee and discuss the progress of the program. (Continued on Page 4) Pharmacist in Key Job (Continued from Page 1) IHC is a part of the Associated Hospital System which is also watching the outcome of the program. IHC is sponsoring the concept, but Scoffield is actually employed by Garfield Memorial. Although such services are offered by private contractors, IHC hopes to develop its own service and take advantage of cost benefits available to the corporation as the program is expanded to a larger scale operation. Decisions regarding the program at the hospital are jointly made with Scoffield, the medical staff and the nursing staff all participating. In the hospital, Scoffield is responsible for monitoring all medication dispensed to patients, endeavoring to be sensitive to their particular medical problems and suggesting whatever medications might help to the medical staff. He is available also to offer information about drugs and medications where needed. Under the program, the hospital is utilizing the "IV Admixture" concept where all IV's are prepared in the pharmacy employing a "laminar flow workbench." The device produces a totally sterile environment for preparing IV solutions lessening the potential for infection or contamination. Scoffield employes the "unit dose" policy for dispensing medications where each dose of medicine is prepackaged for distribution on a 24-hour basis to the nursing staff. With the "unit dose," quality is assured and with the carefully marked packages, there is less chance for error, Scoffield says. It also eliminates the potential of contamination which can occur when medication is dispensed from larger packages to several patients. It also permits better control with less opportunity for medication to be missing. Scoffield checks on a daily basis to see if each patient has been properly medicated, balancing against the individual's medication schedule. It is, he says, a "check and re-check" process that is proving to work very well. Scoffield can also visit with individual patients at the physician's reauest or the patient's request to discuss his or her medication and what might be expected from its proper use. He also conducts a drug utilization review with the medical staff, gathering information from the medical records of a number of patients and carefully preparing statistics that reflect the success or problems associated with a variety of medications over a 60-day period. It helps the physicians to assess the effectiveness of certain medicines and to balance their effect against the cost to the patient. It also helps to ensure that all drugs are being used to their best advantage and highest potential. Scoffield is excited about the program and has confidence that it will prove to be a practical overall pharmacy program of the hospital which can ultimately benefit other facilities, too. Scoffield and his wife, Jeris who is from Lehl met at BYU, They are parents of Jason, 6; Katie, 4; and Ryan, six months. She is a registered nurse and a member of the hospital's nursing staff, |