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exceptional accomplishment, given at the time, pharmacy was con- sidered a marginal profession that garnered little respect from medical professionals and staffs.2
Unit dose drug distribution policies placed pharmacists in charge of filling patient prescriptions, and fur- ther changed how medications were dispensed in hospitals. Pharmacists received a physician’s original or
an original copy of a medication order and reviewed the order before dispensing medications to patients. Medications were contained in single unit packages and dispensed in as ready-to-administer form as pos- sible. Generally, medications were restricted to 24-hour supply limits
in patient-care areas. In addition, a medication profile for each patient was maintained concurrently by pharmacy and medical staffs, which served to better monitor patient safety and reduce medication errors.3
During this time, pharmacists and professional organizations also began promoting policy changes for rational drug use. In general terms, rational drug use means a patient receives the right drug, in the right dose, for the right duration and at the lowest cost to meet the patient’s
clinical needs. Two entities previ- ously advocated and developed by pharmacists — the pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee and the formulary — helped facilitate ra- tional drug use in hospitals through- out the 1960s and into the present.
Developed in the 1930s, P&T com- mittees had formally connected the
pharmacy department with the med- ical staff to communicate drug-use issues. By the late 1950s, functions of the P&T committee were limited to delegating responsibility for prod- uct preparations to the chief phar- macists, selecting supply sources, and approving generic drugs.
In some larger hospitals, the P&T committee oversaw the hospital’s formulary. The formulary, whose name was derived from a collection of formulas pharmacists used to compound and test medications, had on a basic level evolved into a list
of medications available to patients within that hospital facility. The P&T committee reviewed medications on the formulary for efficacy and costs, and further established medication- use policies in the hospital.2
The name formulary was derived from a
collection of formulas pharmacists used
to compound and test medications.
- William A. Zellmer, History of Hospital Pharmacy 48 | InsideOut