Justification for Hospital-Based Nuclear Pharmacy Services

Abstract

Diversification is the greatest survival strategy available to hospital pharmacy today. Nuclear pharmacy is a growing field within institutional pharmacy practice and can help ensure the profession's participation in new technologies and clinical support roles. Nuclear pharmacy practice parallels hospital pharmacy practice in many areas including procurement, compounding, dispensing, quality assessment, and drug use review. Particularly important to the practice of pharmacy are the clinical contributions by nuclear pharmacists in areas such as product selection, drug interactions and interferences, and assisting the physician in the interpretation of nuclear medicine imaging data. Hospital-based nuclear pharmacy services are closely allied with nuclear medicine and radiology, which have felt the effects of changing trends in third party reimbursement. It has been shown repeatedly that nuclear pharmacists can make an impact on the quality of nuclear medicine services, while improving the cost effectiveness of these services. For the past several years, only a few hospital pharmacies have made attempts to provide services to nuclear medicine or radiology departments. Pharmacy has a professional responsibility and obligation to become involved with the use of legend drugs routinely used (or soon to be introduced) within these departments. Nuclear pharmacy is an area in the hospital where pharmacy can make a solid financial impact and broaden its scope of recognition and value.

Perception of Pharmacists about Nuclear Pharmacy Services in Saudi Arabia

“…The nuclear pharmacy services is a pharmacists' job and have a critical role in patient care. [9,10] According to the pharmacists, the first thing to be implemented in order to resolve the barriers was to establish the nuclear pharmacy residency program in Saudi Arabia and set up the therapeutic guidelines for patient management. [28] Education and training is a fundamental solution in nuclear pharmacy practice.…”

“…[7,8] Moreover, the nuclear pharmacy services and the pharmacist did not involve or participate in nuclear medicine services with clinical and nonclinical activities are under development. [9][10][11][12] Each new project had several barriers to the completion of the implementation. The perception of the pharmacist toward the new pharmacy services might affect the implementation.…”

Nuclear Pharmacy Practice: New Initiatives in Saudi Arabia

“…It is a new initiative project derived through the international and national nuclear pharmacy practice guidelines. [1][2][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The task force team of nuclear pharmacy practice services formulated consisted of the author's expertise in the pharmacy administration and clinical pharmacy practitioner. The committee unitized and drove the international literature on outsourcing pharmaceutical care services from the nuclear pharmacy practice guidelines.…”

A Review on Specialization in Pharmacy—Part II: A Commentary on Postgraduate Training and Pharmaceutical Care

“…Over the years, there have been many articles appearing in the pharmacy literature, as well as presentations at organized pharmacy meetings, focused on the justification for hospital-based nuclear pharmacy services and corresponding pharmaceutical care initiatives. [48][49][50][51] Yet fewer than 50 to 75 hospital-based pharmacy programs across the country have risen to the challenge in this nontraditional area of pharmacy practice.…”