Have you ever received angry letters from rejected applicants?

Yes. Those letters -- or angry responses -- are quite telling and reinforce the decision of the Admissions committee that the applicant isn't a good fit for our program. (How someone responds to a set-back can be more insightful than how they respond to success.)

Ask me anything

are you all done finalizing the admission/denial decisions?

No.

Ask me anything

Hello! I was wondering if you are sending admission decisions daily or every so often (in batches)?

Does it have to be one or the other?

(By the way, we did prepare a batch of letters on Friday -- both offers and denials -- but it was AFTER the 9am mail service deadline -- so nothing went out. It's currently sitting in the outgoing mail box. So no one has been notified either way.)

Ask me anything

Does UCSF accept community college courses to fulfill prerequisite requirements?

Yes, we do.

Ask me anything

Just another day at UCSF...

(I've been meaning to post this for a few days. A lot of friends have been posting it on Facebook. I'm glad it's being widely-circulated. Be sure and watch the video. How amazing is this? Yes, UCSF!)

New UCSF Robotic Pharmacy Aims to Improve Patient Safety

Karin Rush-Monroe
UCSF News

March 7, 2011

Although it won’t be obvious to UCSF Medical Center patients, behind the scenes a family of giant robots now counts and processes their medications. With a new automated hospital pharmacy, believed to be the nation’s most comprehensive, UCSF is using robotic technology and electronics to prepare and track medications with the goal of improving patient safety.

Not a single error has occurred in the 350,000 doses of medication prepared during the system’s recent phase in.

The robots tower over humans, both in size and ability to deliver medications accurately. Housed in a tightly secured, sterile environment, the automated system prepares oral and injectable medicines, including toxic chemotherapy drugs. In addition to providing a safer environment for pharmacy employees, the automation also frees UCSF pharmacists and nurses to focus more of their expertise on direct patient care. 

  Pharmacy robot selects medications from drawers.

Photo: Susan Merrell/UCSF

Integrated care

The new pharmacy is the hub of UCSF’s integrated medication management system which combines state-of the-art technology with personalized care.

“The automated pharmacy streamlines medication delivery from prescription to patient,” said Lynn Paulsen, PharmD, director of pharmaceutical services at UCSF Medical Center. “It was important to develop a system that is integrated from end to end. Each step in safe, effective medication therapy – from determining the most appropriate drug for an individual patient to administering it–is contingent on the other.”

The new pharmacy currently serves UCSF hospitals at Parnassus and Mount Zion and has the capacity to dispense medications for the new UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, scheduled to open in 2014. As the phase-in continues, additional steps in the process will be eliminated as doctors begin inputting prescriptions directly into computers in 2012.

“We are intent on finding new ways to improve the quality and safety of our care, while increasing patient satisfaction,” said Mark Laret, CEO, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. “The automated pharmacy helps us achieve that and at the same time, advance our mission as a leading teaching hospital and research institution.

Studies have shown that technology, including barcoding and computerized physician entry, as well as changes in hospital processes for medication management, can help reduce errors. The pharmacy also will enable UCSF to study new ways of medication delivery with the goal of sharing that knowledge with other hospitals across the country.

Automation at work

Once computers at the new pharmacy electronically receive medication orders from UCSF physicians and pharmacists, the robotics pick, package, and dispense individual doses of pills. Machines assemble doses onto a thin plastic ring that contains all the medications for a patient for a 12-hour period, which is bar-coded. This fall, nurses at UCSF Medical Center will begin to use barcode readers to scan the medication at patients’ bedsides, verifying it is the correct dosage for the patient.

The automated system also compounds sterile preparations of chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy doses and fills IV syringes or bags with the medications.  An automated inventory management system keeps track of all the products, and one refrigerated and two non-refrigerated automated pharmacy warehouses provide storage and retrieval of medications and supplies.

By using robots instead of people for previous manual tasks, pharmacists and nurses will have more time to work with physicians to determine the best drug therapy for a patient, and to monitor patients for clinical response and adverse drug reactions.

Educating the next generation

In addition, the new pharmacy offers a rich training ground for pharmacy students in the medication distribution systems of the future.

 Robotic pill picker and plastic bags for medication.

Photo: Susan Merrell/UCSF

“UCSF led the way in training clinical pharmacists, who focus on the patient rather than the drug product,” said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. “Automated medication dispensing frees pharmacists from the mechanical aspects of the practice. This technology, with others, will allow pharmacists to use their pharmaceutical care expertise to assure that patients are treated with medicines tailored to their individual needs.”

The facility, located at Mission Bay south of downtown San Francisco, has been awarded LEED-CI Gold certification for its sustainable building practices.

Article originally published here.

The light at the end of the tunnel...

It's been a crazy few days, it seems. And time is flying by. Wait, it's March already? Wow.... time really does fly when you are having fun!

Shirin (our Outreach & Recruitment Coordinator) and I traveled to Fresno ("FresYES," I say!) this past weekend for Pharmacy Information Day. It was an excellent program, I must admit. We hosted a group of very interested and highly-engaged prospective students (and parents!) I can't believe we are already in the middle of our Spring Information Days. For those not familiar with these programs, you really should visit our website and get registered. We will be visiting Long Beach in April and hosting a San Francisco event in May. Good stuff, good stuff.  (I just realized what a shameless plug that was.)

We had another terrific Admissions Committee meeting today.  The discussions have been very interesting and extremely insightful. Having in-depth discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of our applicants really gives us a sense of who we are admitting (or not admitting.)  These discussions reinforce the fact that we LOOK AT EVERYTHING -- essays, academic preparation, interview evaluations, on-site essay, work experiences, letters of recommendation, leadership, involvement, passion, interest, fit for UCSF, etc. Oh, and that list isn't in any particular order -- just what came to mind. (I'm sure some will read into it and assume essays are the most important, followed by academic preparation, etc. Not true.)

So....  back to the original reason for this post.

We. Must. Start. Sending. Out. Letters. ASAP!

It's been easy to distract ourselves from sending out notification letters -- but we can wait no longer. We will start doing this tomorrow. Yes, we will. =)

In the interest of responding to frequently asked questions, here's a Q&A style post for you:

Have you sent notification letters yet?

Not yet. But we will tomorrow. Both admission offers and non-offer letters (also known as "denial letters".)

Will you send all letters out at the same time?

No. Just some -- both offer letters and denial letters.

If I don't get an offer letter soon, does that mean I will get a denial letter later?

Nope. 

If I don't get a denial letter soon, does that mean I will get an offer letter later?

Nope.

My friend received her letter, but I haven't received mine. Can I call you and find out when my letter will be sent out? 

No. We are committed to sending all notification letters out by April 1st. If you haven't heard from us by April 5th, then definitely contact us!

I heard you started sending out letters earlier last year. True?

We may have sent them earlier -- by a few days -- but every year is different. As my mom would say "things are constantly changing in a constantly-changing world."  Every year is different. Every admissions cycle is different.

Why is it taking so long? 

Well, from our perspective, we are right on track! Our final review process is very very thorough. We want to make sure we are making the right decisions based on solid reasoning/evidence/information. We double- and triple-check our work. (That's important, right?)

I attended the first interview day. Does that mean I'll be notified sooner?  Oh, and my friend interviewed on the last day. Does that mean he will be notified closer to April 1st?

Nope! At this point, everyone has interviewed. Our notification process doesn't take into account when someone interviewed.

Can you fax or email my notification letter?

No. We believe it's important to notify you with a letter in the mail.

Are offer letters sent in big envelopes and denial letters sent in little envelopes?

All letters are sent in same-sized envelopes. We keep it simple. (But this question always cracks me up.)

I have an offer from another school. Can you expedite my notification so I can make a decision now?

Unfortunately, we won't. As we've previously told all our applicants, we are committed to sending out all notification letters by April 1st. To expedite a decision/notification wouldn't be fair to you, to us, and to all other applicants.

And finally......

Is patience a good quality in a future pharmacist?

Yes! Absolutely!!!

The Daring and the Different

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Eeeks! Sorry. Once we return from our winter break, the pace is frenetic and there's just no time to blog, much less breathe.

We are preparing for our fifth and final interview day this coming Friday and I've heard many interviewees comment on how helpful the blog has been. (Which adds even more pressure to post regularly!)

A few days ago Mary Anne stopped by the office to chat -- no agenda, just a casual visit to see how we were doing. She mentioned a meeting she recently had with a current first-year student -- again, no agenda, just a meeting to get to know the student... and for the student to get to know her. She was VERY IMPRESSED with the student and raved about her post-graduation intentions of returning to her home country to help solve health disparities. The student, according to Mary Anne, struck the perfect balance of compassion, intention, bravery, and bold thinking.

It reminded me of a meeting the Admissions Committee had with Mary Anne a few years ago prior to embarking on that year's admissions cycle. She challenged us to recruit, interview, and admit "bold and innovative thinkers who aren't afraid to push the boundaries of the profession."  That's a direct quote, folks. I kid you not. I wrote it down and often refer to it when talking to prospective students. 

The same day that Mary Anne stopped by the office, my friend Heather emailed me a quote that seemed to embody the same spirit of boldness:

        Be daring,
        be different,
        be impractical,
        be anything that will assert
        integrity of purpose and
        imaginative vision
        against the play-it-safers,
        the creatures of the commonplace,
        the slaves of the ordinary.            ~ Cecil Beaton

In my quick research of Cecil Beaton, I found him to be a bold and innovative thinker who certainly wasn't afraid to push the boundaries of his profession. 

So to bring it all back to pharmacy school admissions: Are you daring? Different? A visionary? Or a play-it-safer?

Are you a bold and innovative thinker who will push the boundaries of this profession?