Joint Base Sam Houston, Texas (Jan. 18, 2017) -- The Soldier Functional Restoration (SFR) Team from Evans Army Community Hospital, Fort Carson Colorado, was awarded the Army Medicine Wolf Pack Award for the first quarter of 2017.
The Army Medicine Wolf Pack Award was created to recognize exceptional teamwork by an integrated group of military and civilian members.
The SFR Team of 90 Soldiers, Airmen, and Department of the Army Civilians built a joint regional formulary that enhanced pharmacy processes and program changes. The joint effort recaptured prescription services from retail network pharmacies and united three separate military treatment facilities (MTF) and associated clinics.
According to Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West, Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command, the implementation of the program has led to positive impacts on patient safety and satisfaction for the 172,000 Colorado Springs area beneficiaries and has reduced the operating costs of the facilities.
This project merged 20 individual MTF and clinic formularies, increased the number of stocked medications in each MTF, and decreased the number of prescriptions sent to the network.
The Team edited 5,000 individual drug files to remove duplicate or unused files and then built standard names, recommended dosing schedules, and auxiliary warning labels into the system.
The Team overcame inter-departmental and inter-service obstacles to achieve its goal in during the six month project. The new system also increased the clinical staff's efficiency and decreased patient wait times. Ordering and processing non-formulary medications went from seven days to same day or next day service while reducing cost to both the patient and government.
The team's efforts reduced the retail pharmacy cost from $44.3 million to $27.1 miliion and allowed for an increased number of potential drug interactions and therapy duplications being caught and corrected for patients.
"The SFR Team's effort, exceptional teamwork, and dedication have made an immediate impact on the patient experience and epitomize the highest standards of Army Medicine," said West.
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