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This version of NSU News has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of NSU News, visit news.nova.edu.
This version of SharkBytes has been archived as of February 28, 2019. To search through archived articles, visit nova.edu/search. To access the new version of SharkBytes, visit sharkbytes.nova.edu.
NSU’s College of Pharmacy Welcomes New Faculty Member
Renee S. Jones, Pharm.D, CPh.
Renee S. Jones, Pharm.D, CPh., recently joined NSU’s College of Pharmacy faculty as director of preceptor development and assistant professor. Prior to joining NSU, Jones served as the pharmacy operations supervisor/clinical pharmacy coordinator at Broward Health Medical Center (BHMC) for more than 6 years focusing on improved patient care, cost containment and design of new operational plans for 48 pharmacists and 45 technicians. By developing policies and procedures, pre-printed order forms, clinical pharmacy services, and most importantly, financial initiatives, she was successful in promoting safe practices in alignment with Joint Commission standards, optimizing patient care, and generating a total of $3 million in revenue and $1.1 million in cost savings for the institution in less than two years.
In addition, while at BHMC, she was accountable for evaluating automated medication dispensing pyxis reports and narcotic inventories, action plans for cost savings strategies, and improvement of employee satisfaction scores through pharmacist, nursing, and physician engagement. She was also responsible for the expansion of the ASHP accredited pharmacy residency program from one to four residents and the modification of clinical pharmacist duties and staffing requirements, which led to an increase in the retention of pharmaceutical staff to approximately 90 percent. She also spearheaded the implementation and ongoing quality assurance to ensure compliance by all staff members as it relates to USP 797 and USP 800 guidelines for the preparation of pharmaceutical agents.
As a clinical assistant professor at Rutgers University, Jones’ core responsibilities were to precept fourth year Pharm.D. candidates on clinical rotations, teach didactic courses such as infectious disease therapeutics, and co-coordinate an elective course. Students assigned to her experiential rotation learned how to thoroughly assess patient cases and use resources such as primary literature to validate their clinical decisions. She was also able to save the hospital more than $100,000 via clinical interventions that were accepted by individual physicians.
At Hunterdon Medical Center, Jones served as the clinical pharmacy coordinator and residency program director. She participated in multi-disciplinary rounds in the adult intensive care unit (75 percent) and internal medicine family practice team (25 percent) approximately 4-5 days a week. Some of the services that she helped implement include outpatient geriatric assessments, participation in patient assistance programs, ambulatory care services, antibiotic stewardship program, the Pharmacy Resource Newsletter, and a new General Pharmacy Practice Residency program. These programs allowed other health care professionals access to the knowledge and expertise of a clinical pharmacist, which in turn, allowed these programs to grow at an unexpected rate.