Base pharmacy has the remedy for Airmen, families

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Shane Dunaway
  • 36th Wing Public Affairs
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam --  When Team Andersen members are feeling the effects of an illness or the pain of an injury, they are placed in the trusted care of the Airmen working in the clinic's pharmacy.

The technicians working in the clinic's pharmacy distribute medications intended to relieve the pain and help improve the patient's condition. The medications are prescribed by clinic, Guam Navy Hospital and local providers.

Capt. Christa Sechrist, 36th Medical Support Squadron officer-in-charge, oversees a formulary of more than 700 medications and a team of five technicians who fill an average of 150 prescriptions per day, while providing quality service focused towards safe, accurate distribution of medications.

"We're held to a higher standard here in the pharmacy where we can't make mistakes," Captain Sechrist said. "A mistake could be lethal, so there's a system of checks, double-checks and triple-checks in place and we always do that last safety check to ensure the patient gets the right med and the right dose at the right time."

The clinic here and the Guam Naval Hospital work together and extend a hand to one another when needed, fostering relations in the joint environment.

"We share our workload with Navy Hospital," said Master Sgt. Danny Acasio, 36th MDSS NCO in charge of pharmacy services. "Whatever we can't fill, we'll send it to them if they can fill it. It's more like a partnership. We fill what we can for them and they fill what they can for us."

In today's ever-growing era of medicine, the pharmacy staff must keep up with a high volume of patients' prescriptions as well as be equally knowledgeable and well-informed on new medicines as they become available.

"We are bombarded on a daily basis with information about new drug products, safety warnings, FDA warnings, and drug recalls," Captain Sechrist said. "We have a lot of multitasking we have to do to make sure we're up to speed with current therapy, current treatment and current meds. If there's a med that isn't safe, we need to get it off the shelf."

The pharmacy staff is aided by two pieces of equipment in the office - a vault to secure narcotic medication and the Pharm-Assist Automated Prescription Filling System, a machine that counts out the number of pills needed for a particular prescription and affixes a label to the bottle. The Pharm-Assist cost more than $150,000, but the captain noted it allows more time to focus on patient consultations and their prescriptions.

Sergeant Acasio, a 20-year veteran of the career field, has seen many changes throughout his career, but his favorite part of his job remains the same.

"When I give medicine to someone who [is] sick, [I have] the satisfaction of knowing I've helped him get better health-wise," Sergeant Acasio said. "Every day, I know that I've helped someone get better."