Walter Reed National Military Medical Center boasts one of the most innovative and comprehensive approaches to pharmaceutical care within the U.S. Military Health System. While many people dread a trip to the pharmacy, typically imagining having to stand in line to acquire their prescriptions, that is not the case at this flagship facility. Walter Reed’s pharmacy services are implementing an ever-expanding series of methods to streamline and improve their customers’ experience.

“We’ve listened to our customers and continue to work to incorporate changes and updates to our services that help them get the care they deserve,” said Lt. Col. Seth Mayer, Chief of Pharmacy Services for Walter Reed. “We’re at an interesting time in technology. Over the last three years we’ve rolled out the electronic health record, MHS GENESIS. We’ve added new pharmacy automation software, as well as adopting a new version of requesting pharmacy services via Q-Anywhere. All these changes we’ve implemented are critical in terms of meeting patients where they’re at.”

MHS GENESIS is a modern system that provides a single electronic health record for service members, retirees and their beneficiaries. The system is hosted on a secure website that is accessible 24/7 and provides several features, including allowing patients to schedule appointments, communicate with their care providers and request refills of their prescriptions.

The newly adopted automation software is a scalable enterprise suite designed to optimize the pharmacy’s supply chain. It provides comprehensive management and automated fulfillment workflows, ensuring patients receive accurate prescriptions through an efficient, quality-controlled process.

The Q-Anywhere remote queuing system allows patients to submit new prescriptions or renewal prescriptions at their most convenient Walter Reed pharmacy location. This allows them to essentially “get in line” virtually and pick up their prescription at their convenience. Even if their number is called prior to their arrival, their place is held and they can simply notify the pharmacy when they get there.

“I think people don’t realize Walter Reed has such a breadth and depth of pharmacy services,” said Dr. Elena Vagichev, assistant chief of Clinical Pharmacy Operations. “And people don’t realize the amount and volume of the medications we actually process.”

Walter Reed doesn’t have just one or two pharmacy locations. To serve the wide array of pharmaceutical requirements across the entirety of the hospital’s various departments and facilities, the hospital maintains several pharmacies that are responsible for managing the patients’ medication needs.

While there are two primary pharmacies — the Arrowhead facility and the America pharmacy, which serve both inpatient and outpatient prescriptions — there are several “smaller” pharmacy units that provide focused pharmaceutical support to specialty areas of the hospital. For example, the Hematology/Oncology pharmacy provides medications for all inpatient/outpatient cancer treatments, as well as supporting the infusion clinic.

There is also the Intensive Care Unit pharmacy, which covers the ICU, the surgical and medical ICUs, as well as the pediatric ICU. Then there are clinical pharmacists, who make rounds in the hospital units, the ICUs, and the clinics, coordinating with the medical teams to ensure each patient is receiving the proper medication.

Serving the prescription needs for all these different pharmaceutical focuses yields an incredible number of medications supplied. On average, Walter Reed’s pharmacies fulfill 50,000 outpatient prescriptions each month, with an additional 40,000 filled for inpatient needs. To manage all this pharmaceutical coverage, Walter Reed employs a team of more than 150 personnel.

“What is special about us is how we treat our staff; we treat each other like family,” said My Lan Tran, supervisory pharmacist. “And we carry that philosophy to the patient. We treat our patients just like one of our own family members.”

“There’s a shared understanding of who we serve and why we serve them,” said Mayer. “And that feeling is something that’s endemic to the people who work here. Over time, we have people that become stewards of [the culture], that allow that to continue. The person that sits in this chair is the person that’s going to make change, the civilians and people who work here, they create the continuity.”

For more information about Walter Reed’s pharmacy services, visit walterreed.tricare.mil/pharmacy.