Pharmacist empowerment: taking practice guidelines to the next level (Part 2).

Empowering pharmacists to have direct control and responsibility for institutional drug-use protocols can assist in reducing costs and improving the quality of patient care. This article examines pharmacist involvement in two drug use protocols in place at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston. The first is a pharmacist conversion order protocol in which pharmacists are given the responsibility of flagging and monitoring IV to oral dosage conversions of selected medications; the second is a pharmacist screening program for parenteral ketorolac dosing.