Awards Ceremony — 2004

OhioHealth, Inc., of Columbus was honored as the first recipient of the award at the 2004 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting. The 2004 Excellence Luncheon brought together the best and brightest of health-system pharmacy for an invitation-only celebration of the first winners of the award. The luncheon occurred on December 5, 2004, at The Peabody Orlando, Orlando, Florida.

OhioHealth, Inc., which consists of 7 member and 6 affiliated hospitals bested 41 other applicants to win the top prize of $50,000. Billy W. Woodward, R.Ph., Chair of the ASHP Foundation’s Board of Directors and also host of the event said, “It was an extremely competitive process, and it was very challenging to narrow the field to three award recipients.”

As part of its overall organizational quality initiatives, OhioHealth charged each of its hospitals with developing an action plan to decrease adverse drug events (ADEs) in three targeted high-risk and frequently used medication groups—anticoagulants, sedatives, and insulin products, said Thomas P. Sherrin, M.S., FASHP, Director of Clinical Resource Management for the health system. Sherrin praised OhioHealth’s Chief Medical Officer, C. David Moorehead, M.D., who attended the award ceremony, for championing the health system’s ADE prevention initiative, adding that “patients are the real winners in this effort.”

Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of the finalists for the award, was recognized for the integrated health system’s progress toward reducing the occurrence of adverse drug events by 90 percent in 5 years. Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, was selected as the other finalist. At Children’s, completion of an Institute for Safe Medication Practices survey in 2000 led to development of the 14-member multidisciplinary Medication Process Action Team whose mission was supported through a Board of Trustees resolution.