Hi Ruth,

What you say here is exactly how i feel. I think we all in our positions would be a valuable asset to utilize at P and T.

Wish one day we get recongized for all the good things and great knowledge we have, i am sure by that time i might have great great grandchildren??

Name of Facility: VA CT Healthcare

City, State: Federal Hospital

Years as a Buyer: 7.5

Oh Jeri
Do not be disheartened. It could happen sooner than you think.

Like Kathy, I prepare the Hard to find list for my supervisor. The clinicals are constantly doing clinical analysis for medications they want to add and remove from the formulary. The resident and intern pharmacists help prepare the presentation--so I am key in supplying the nessary and relevant information. I am happy that I have not been asked to attend the P & T meetings.

This is a very interesting discussion. I remember when I was Pharmacy Contract Administrator for a large national pharmacy purchasing group. We had 43 members of our Advisory Committee, one from every shareholder system that was part of the large buying group. At one time, 41 members were Pharmacy Director type positions and 2 members were actually Pharmacy Buyers. Whenever supply issues came up, the buyers would be asked about current supply problems, as the pharmacists were so many years out of line responsibility for procurement that they knew how supply problems may have been 10 years ago, but tended to not have current knowledge. The Pharmacy Buyers were an invaluable resource for that Advisory Committee.

Name of Facility: Editor-In-Chief, Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook

City, State: Newsletter

I had the opportunity last week to attend our P and T, now called Medication Management Committee. Our Drug Info Pharmd., brought up switching from Cefoxitin IV preop to Cefotan preop, because she was alerted by our National Committee, that Cefotan was readily available. I asked the question, did someone here actually check the availability , and the answer was no. So when someone did actually check , Cefotan is available, but definitely not at the quantities we would want to start converting back to using it as our first choice for pre op. This is now on hold.

Just this one thing leads me to believe that we in our positions do have valuable information that could be utilized better? I am not looking for more work, believe me, but just the example above shows no one has all the correct answers.

Name of Facility: VA CT Healthcare

City, State: Federal Hospital

Years as a Buyer: 7.5