Washington, DC – The Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) has announced that the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Pharmacy has been named the 2018 recipient of the Warren E. Weaver/Richard P. Penna Award.
At the Johns Hopkins Hospital, board certified clinical pharmacists provide direct care for patients in adult internal medicine, ambulatory care, anticoagulation management, bone marrow transplantation, cardiology, critical care, emergency medicine, infectious diseases, neurosciences, oncology, pain and palliative care, pediatrics, psychiatry, solid organ transplantation and surgery across 1,154 acute care beds, numerous hospital-based outpatient clinics, and a network of 40 primary care sites. All clinical pharmacist specialists employed by The Johns Hopkins Hospital are expected to be board certified, and by 2020 the board certification requirement will be extended to all pharmacists providing direct patient care.
Other departmental highlights include:
- In 2014 the Clinical Pharmacists Practitioner was established as an authorized prescriber through the Hospital’s Medical Board Credentialing and Privileging process, with board certification as part of the credentialing and privileging requirements;
- 97 (52%) full-time pharmacists hold at least one BPS board certification;
- 17 full-time pharmacists hold more than one BPS board certification; and
- 48 (87%) Clinical Pharmacy Specialists hold at least one BPS board certification.
Redonda G. Miller, MD, MBA, President of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and nominator noted: “At its core, the department and its members are driven by a desire to provide high-quality patient care. Furthermore, they are steadfast towards appropriate medication use and the specialized training and expert pharmacotherapy knowledge make our pharmacists invaluable members of the patient’s healthcare team.”
Stuart T. Haines, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, Professor and Director, Pharmacy Professional Development at the University of Mississippi, stated the following in his letter of support: “…board certification has played a critical role in advancing the practice of pharmacy at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, not only as a professional development tool but as a means of identifying those individuals who possess the necessary knowledge and skills. Board certification is an essential component of the credentialing and privileging of pharmacists at Johns Hopkins Hospital.”
Co-nominator, Sara E. Cosgrove, MD, MS, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Antimicrobial Stewardship stated: “I have been a first-hand witness (and beneficiary) of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Pharmacy’s promotion of clinical pharmacists with specialized training and BPS board certification as invaluable healthcare team members. They are uniquely skilled in both integrating into clinical teams while, at the same time, ensuring that the optimal care of patients is always the first goal.”
Todd W. Nesbit, PharmD, MBA, FASHP, Director of Pharmacy Patient Care Services for the Academic Division of the Johns Hopkins Health System noted: “BPS board certification provides a validated measure of our clinicians’ abilities to provide direct care to our patients, to educate others about appropriate medication use, and to generate and disseminate new knowledge of pharmacotherapy across a broad array of practice domains. In a climate which increasingly necessitates high quality health care delivery, board certification provides assurance that our practitioners are poised to deliver on these expectations.”
About the Warren E. Weaver/Richard P. Penna Award
BPS announced the establishment of the Warren E. Weaver/Richard P. Penna Award as part of the BPS 40th Anniversary celebration. The award recipient must be an individual or organization who has advanced health quality and/or patient care by promoting the recognition and value of specialized training, knowledge, and skills in pharmacy and the BPS board certification of pharmacists.
The award will be conferred at a meeting or venue deemed appropriate by the BPS Board of Directors based upon the affiliation of the award recipient. The award will bear the images of Warren Weaver and Richard Penna and the BPS logo inscribed with the recipient’s name and date of presentation. In addition, the BPS offices will display a perpetual plaque recognizing previous award recipients.
The award honors Warren E. Weaver who was the first Chair of the Board of Pharmacy Specialties. Weaver was a founding trustee of the Virginia Pharmacists Association Foundation and, on the national level, he served as 1968-69 president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
In 1973, Weaver was appointed by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) to the Taskforce on Specialties in Pharmacy, which led to the establishment of the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties—now the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS). Weaver went on to serve BPS from 1975 to 1981 and was elected the first chairman, serving in that role from 1976 to 1979. Weaver passed away in July 2014 at the age of 93.
The award also honors Richard (Dick) P. Penna who joined the staff at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) in 1966. Among his many professional accomplishments, he was a co-developer of APhA’s Handbook of Nonprescription Drugs and was an advocate for pharmacist patient counseling and clinical activities. Penna served as the APhA staff member assigned to the Taskforce on Specialties in Pharmacy in 1973, and he went on to assume responsibility as the first secretary/executive director of BPS in 1975.
In 1985, Penna joined American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy as associate executive director and was named executive vice president and chief executive officer in 1995. The prestigious APhA Remington Honor Medal was presented to Penna in 2002, recognizing his distinguished service to the profession of pharmacy. Penna passed away in August 2011 at the age of 75.
About the Board of Pharmacy Specialties ®
The Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) was established in 1976 as an autonomous division of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). The mission of the Board of Pharmacy Specialties is to improve patient care and increase awareness of the need for BPS Board Certified Pharmacists as integral members of multidisciplinary healthcare teams through recognition and promotion of specialized training, knowledge, and skills in pharmacy and specialty board certification and recertification of pharmacists throughout the world.
Board Certification through BPS has become recognized as the gold standard for determining which pharmacists are qualified to contribute at advanced practice levels as a result of the rigorous standards mandated by BPS board certification and recertification. Today over 30,000 pharmacists worldwide hold BPS certification.
MEDIA CONTACT
BPS CONTACT
Alexander Jean-Baptiste
Social Media & Content Marketing Manager
Phone: 202-760-3836