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.