Policy for drug representatives - American Society of Health System ...

Policy for Drug Representatives
POSTED ON 01/24/2005
Hello List Specialist,
I have been given the assignment for developing a policy for drug reps visiting the hospital. As
it stands now they pretty much have free reign over the hospital except for visiting on the floors.
The Chief Medical Officer wants to structure their visits. Some of the reps have been pushing
medications that are not on our formulary system and it is causing some problems with our
physicians.
Would any one happen to have a policy or share the procedure as to when they can visit.
Thanks in advance,
Venita Bowie
Vbowie@blessinghospital.com
All reps need to make appointments in advance prior to visiting the hospital on any floor.
Appointments are handled by the pharmacy department. This was a problem in our facility as
well until this new policy was implemented. We had reps in the cath lab pushing their drug in
between cardiac catheterizations.
Ozzie Delgado, PharmD
Clinical Specialist
Cleveland Clinic Florida
osmel.delgado@tenethealth.com
The system I work with struggled with this a couple of years back and came up with these
guidelines.
1. All reps must sign in at the pharmacy and receive a visitor badge. We
encouraged security to enforce this and it seemed to work well.
2. We have a meeting with each representative as soon as we know they are
calling on our site and tell them they can talk about the non-formulary drug, however
they must also mention the formulary drug in that class (that usually stops them at
that point.)
3. We have a once a month ‘drug fair’ where we email the reps and schedule a
time where they meet with the providers and nurses and can discuss their products.
This seems to cut down on the random visits and allows us to monitor what is
happening.
Good luck
JDE
Jeffery D. Evans, Pharm.D
Clinical Pharmacist, Internal Medicine Department
Winn Army Community Hospital, Ft. Stewart, GA
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice
South University, School of Pharmacy
Savannah, GA
jeffevans@southuniversity.edu

I've sent our off to Venita. If anyone else wants it, please write me
directly.
Manny Saltiel, PharmD, FASHP
Clinical Coordinator, Pharmacy
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Emmanuel.Saltiel@cshs.org
Morning, all.
This is our system:
1. All displays are scheduled through Materials Management.
2. ONLY approved FORMULARY drugs can be displayed. (Materials Management is very
good about
calling the Pharmacy to ask the status of a drug the rep wishes to display.)
3. All displays take place outside the Medical Staff Lounge.
4. Hours of display are 0800 to 1100.
5. No food or perishable items are allowed in the display area.
6. Only nominal promotional items (pens, rulers, trips to Vegas--just kidding), may be given.
No
samples of products can be given on hospital premises.
7. Reps are NOT allowed anywhere in the hospital (other than the display area) without first
scheduling
an appointment with the unit manager or supervisor of the unit they wish to visit.
I've been here 3 years and this policy has been in effect for a long, long time (the RPh's that
came with the first load of bricks relayed this to me). It has worked very, very well for us. I
make it a point to walk by the display and see what the reps are up to. I have the reputation in
Materials Management as the "Rep Police" because I make sure that the policy is upheld--
especially in regards to only formulary drugs being displayed and detailed.
I hope this helps!
Bevan Kohan, PharmD
Indiana Regional Medical Center
Indiana, PA
bkohan@indianarmc.org
One stron suggestion from my "hospital" days. Put in your policy
1. the reps may only talk about what oyu have on formulary.
2. They must let oyu know in advacne when they will be talking to a group of residents/interns or
nurses. Make sure you are there to counter detail.
Bruce Ruck
bruck@njpies.org

Hello:
Does anyone have any experience yet with the new MS drug Natalizumab (Tysabri) I am told
that the manufacturer is looking to "partner up" with local infusion centers to provide care to
these patients. Any experience with reimbursement or lack thereof, indigent patient programs,
adverse events, etc would be greatly appreciated. Since Biogen is in my backyard, they are
hitting us heavy and the water just looks a bit deep for my liking to be the first to jump on board
and I would like to know what we are getting ourselves into.
Thanks
Pat
Patrick Skeffington, PharmD, MS
Clinical Pharmacy Manager
Cambridge Health Alliance
PSkeffington@challiance.org
We also require all reps including other equipment, etc reps to have an advanced appointment.
They check-in at the Purchasing Department who calls the individual they have an appointment
with to confirm and then issues them a temporary vendor badge which they return to purchasing
on leaving. There still are some who violate this, but employees are reminded to not see vendor
reps without an appointment and a temporary vendor badge.
Bob Meyer
Bergan Mercy, Omaha
BMeyer@alegent.org
Our policy is similar, with the reps needing a badge prior to going to any area in the hospital.
They also must have prior authorization from us before providing any nursing inservices (we
require a copy of title and what will be discussed, as we found they were promoting nonformulary
drugs and in some cases contradicting our polices). Finally, we restrict all displays to
a single area in the hospital and our medical school (UMDNJ) prevents reps from providing
lunch to the residents).
Constance M. Pfeiffer, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCOP
Department of Pharmacy Practice
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy of Rutgers
Piscataway, NJ
University Medical Center at Princeton
Princeton, NJ
Any one know of a company who can provide"canned" Policies and Procedures, Job
descriptions, PI, DUE's, ect for a new hospital being opened.
Trying to help a new surgical hospital in my community.
Calvin Euler, RPh.
Pharmacy Team Leader
Arkansas Heart Hospital
calvin.euler@arheart.com

Calvin—
Check out http://www.utmb.edu/rxhome/Policies.htm
It is a good starting point when developing policies from scratch!
Laurie J. Broman, Pharm.D.
Pharmacy Clinical Coordinator
Lbroman@landmardmedical.org
A good reference for job descriptions and more good stuff is "Competence Assessment tools for
Health System Pharmacists" from ASHP.
Janet J. Madsen, Pharm.D.
Pharmacist/In-Patient Training Specialist
Fairview Pharmacy Services
Mpls., MN
JMadsen1@fairview.org