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Chen Named Co-Chair of Safety Group

  • Chen Named Co-Chair of Safety Group
  • Dennis Wagner, left, deputy director of the HRSA Center for Quality, and professor Steven Chen
  • Photo/Kukla Vera

By Gabrielle Olya on October 23, 2009 10:46 AM

USC School of Pharmacy associate professor Steven Chen has been appointed co-chair of the Health Resources and Services Administration Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Collaborative 2.0, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Chen, a strong proponent of the need for clinical pharmacy services in clinics that serve high-risk and chronically-ill patients, hopes that his new role will provide an opportunity to help new and existing medical teams across the country develop or advance their clinical pharmacy services and produce documented improvements in health outcomes.

He has worked with the JWHC Medical Clinic at the Weingart Center in downtown Los Angeles, one of the largest safety net clinics in the area, and consults with other local clinics, including the QueensCare Family Clinics and South Central Family Health Center.

Chen’s experience with these clinics and the dramatic improvements in patient health outcomes, along with his involvement in last year’s Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Collaborative, made him a top contender for his new post. As co-chair of the collaborative, he will provide leadership to the faculty involved, ensuring that the collaborative develops strategies that will ensure the success of the collaboration.

Chen has high hopes for the future of integrated clinical pharmacy services in medical homes throughout the nation.

“This collaborative is showing that clinical pharmacy services clearly save lives and improve health outcomes,” he said.

One of the areas that Chen plans to focus on is the collection and analysis of data relative to the impact of clinical pharmacy services. “The data tells the story of how clinical pharmacy services dramatically improve patient outcomes while saving health care dollars,” he said.

Chen’s co-chair is Mark Loafman, a safety net clinic physician and faculty member at Northwestern University. Loafman is an administrator and physician who provides a practical medical perspective. The co-chairing of a pharmacist and a physician illustrates the collaborative’s multidisciplinary approach.

In its second year, the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Collaborative increased site participation by almost 50 percent, adding nearly 80 new teams to this year’s roster.

The collaborative seeks to improve patient outcomes and safety by integrating evidence-based, clinical pharmacy services into clinical care and management.

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