Recent Updates from Research Pharmacy

Welcome, Julie Balk, Research Pharmacy Portfolio Coordinator!

The Research Pharmacy Team is pleased to introduce Julie Balk, our inaugural team member in the Research Pharmacy Portfolio Coordinator role! In this position, Julie will help shepherd studies through the Research Pharmacy start-up processes and serve as a centralized contact for study teams – removing the more administrative pieces from our research pharmacists. She started in mid-June and will continue onboarding in the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience as we continue to define her role and align our processes accordingly. Stay tuned for more details on how to partner with Julie in her new role!

Help Us Improve Wait Times for Prescriptions

The Research Pharmacy team relies on the information provided on paper prescriptions and other communications to triage our work. It takes ~30 minutes to fill an oral prescription and 60 minutes to prepare an IV dose, so when we receive several at the same time, it is critical to have accurate information regarding the time needed in order to prioritize work. Evaluations of workload trends show that our busiest times are between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM. To help assure that we can meet the needs of all of our patients, you can help by doing the following:

• Include *realistic* and *accurate* times needed, bearing in mind that if you request a time earlier than you actually need a prescription for the patient, you may be jumping ahead in line and creating delays in patient care for others.
• Send prescriptions well in advance of the time needed whenever possible.
• Obtain IRT/IVRS treatment assignments in advance and send these with the prescriptions whenever possible.

Best Kept Secret: The Research Pharmacy Operations Manual

Did you know that all Research Pharmacy policies, as well as FAQ and other commonly requested information, are all contained in the Research Pharmacy Operations Manual? It is available on the Research Pharmacy internal webpage, along with a lot of other handy information. Click here to access.