Hospital pharmacy

• Goals of Hospital Pharmacy

  • Selection, prescription, procurement, delivery, administration, and review of medications to optimize patient outcomes
  • Ensure that the right patient, dose, route of administration, time, drug, information, and documentation are respected when any medication is used
• The hospital pharmacist should be an expert on medicines
• Primary mission of hospital pharmacy is to manage the use of medications in hospitals and other medical centers
• Functions of Hospital Pharmacy (Services UNIQUE to Hospital Pharmacy Services)

  • Preparing and maintaining a formulary
  • Conducting drug use evaluations
  • Preparing products using aseptic techniques
  • Ensuring that hazardous agents are handled and disposed of properly
  • Filling medication orders (as opposed to prescriptions)
  • Preparing 24-hour supplies of patient medications in a form appropriate for a single administration to a patient (as opposed to a 30- or 90-day supply)
  • Stocking nursing stations with medications & supplies
  • Delivering medications to patients’ rooms
  • Maintaining a drug information service and providing drug information to other healthcare professionals
  • Educating and counseling inpatients and outpatients about their drug therapies
  • Monitoring patient outcomes daily (during admission)
  • Participating in clinical drug investigations and research
  • Providing in-service drug-related education
  • Providing expert consultations in areas such as pediatric, pharmacology, nutritional support, and pharmacokinetics
• Functions of Hospital Pharmacy (Services SIMILAR to Community Pharmacy Services)

  • Maintaining drug treatment records
  • Ordering and stocking medications and medical supplies
  • Repackaging medications
  • Dispensing medications
  • Providing information about the proper use of medications
  • Collecting and evaluating information about adverse drug reactions and interactions
  • Preparing medications in various dose forms for dispensing
  • Educating and counseling patients about their drug therapies
  • Preventing, identifying, and resolving medication-related problems
• Hospital Pharmacy


  • Specialized field of pharmacy
  • Forms an integrated part of patient health care
  • Strives to continuously maintain and improve medication management and pharmaceutical care of patients to the highest standards in a hospital setting
• Pharmacists' Roles in Adult Vaccine Administration

  Advocating and administering immunizations
• In some countries, pharmacists are primarily involved in ensuring the safe supply and dispensing of vaccines, as well as advocating for immunization, while in other countries they are empowered to play a more active role, organizing vaccination activities and campaigns
• Responsibilities of a hospital pharmacist

  1. Advising on prescribing

  2. Administering

  3. Monitoring

  4. Supply management to ensure availability of medicines through procurement, storage, distribution, inventory control, and quality assurance
• According to the International Federation for Pharmacists (FIP), the role of pharmacists in immunization and vaccination varies across the world
• Role of a hospital pharmacist

  • Devising specific medication plans for individualized patient care
  • Assisting in drug-based decisions
  • Compounding medications
  • Educating patients on medication use
  • Conducting clinical trials
  • Providing medicines in emergency situations
  • Assisting in specialized medical care, such as for cancer patients
• Activities in hospital pharmacy practice are consistent with the preventive aspects of pharmaceutical care and have been part of pharmacy practice for over a century
• In the Philippines, vaccine administration rights were granted to trained pharmacists by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA advisory No. 2014-067)