THE PHARMACY
 

In-patient and Out-patient dispensing.

The New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) Pharmacy plays a critical role in the medical care of a diverse population of in-patients at the PI hospital and at the two community outpatient services. We fill medication cassettes for PI hospital’s three in-patient units, the Washington Heights Community Service, the Schizophrenia Research Unit and the General Clinical Research Unit. We also fill prescriptions for outpatients treated in the two community service clinics, Audubon and Inwood.

However, our service to the patients and medical community does not end there. The pharmacists at NYSPI provide counseling for patients on the use of their medicine, as well as information on the use of over-the-counter preparations and herbal medicines. Every prescription filled at our pharmacy is checked for interactions with other medications, for appropriateness of therapy and timely refills.

Equipped with the latest resources, pharmacy staff answer a variety of questions from medical personnel on all types of matters relating to pharmaceutical products and their availability. We will assist with finding the latest drug information in all areas of medication use, dosing, interactions, warnings, and availability of formulary alternatives.

The Pharmacy Department also publishes the NYSPI Pharmacy and Columbia Research Pharmacy Newsletter, which is full of useful and important information on newly approved drugs, serious drug interactions, updated prescribing information and changes in pharmacy law and practice, reporting on the Pharmacy’s latest projects and achievements and other related healthcare news.

The NYSPI Drug Monitoring Committee develops and maintains the NYSPI drug formulary. Our formulary contains a complete selection of medications available for the treatment of PI patients. It consists of the entire range of psychotropic medications, including the latest approved neuroleptics, antidepressants and other agents on the market, as well as medications from other therapeutic classes: antihypertensives, hypoglycemics, antibiotics, pain medications, topical preparations, etc. The wide selection of drug therapy in the NYSPI formulary helps to make patients’ medical care as complete as possible.

New Endeavors
Overall, the scope of the research services provided by the collaboration with the CPMC Research Pharmacy continues to expand. The NYSPI Pharmacy has begun to act as a central packaging, randomization, and distribution center for several federally funded studies. We randomize patients in research projects to different treatment groups and compound double-blind capsules, kits and injectable products for use in research projects.
The number of active research projects exceeds 200, and is spread among three sites on the Columbia - NYSPI campus. Besides Psychiatry, staff pharmacists are involved in projects in several therapeutic areas including Pediatric and Adult Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Neurology, Alzheimer’s disease, Neurology, Cardiology, Endocrinology and others.