David Dietrick

David’s Story

David A. Dietrick earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Ferris State University College of Pharmacy in 2005 and is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist. He is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. He is Clinical Associate Professor at the University Of Colorado Skaggs School Of Pharmacy, and is also in his second year as a member of the ASHP Section of Clinical Specialists and Scientists Advisory Group on Emergency Care.

Dr. Dietrick is an Emergency Medicine Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colorado. St. Anthony Hospital is a Level 1 Trauma Center and home to Flight for Life Colorado. David’s primary interests include emergency medicine, trauma, toxicology, and infectious disease. Over the past 9 years, he has practiced clinical pharmacy at Spectrum Health Butterworth and Blodgett hospitals in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Florida; Children’s Hospital Denver in Aurora, Colorado; and Providence Hospital in Centralia, Washington.

Facility

St. Anthony Medical Campus provides state-of-the-art technology, and offers advanced care with special expertise in neurosciences, level I trauma, stroke, cardiovascular care and cancer. St. Anthony is a 224 bed teaching hospital with 42 Emergency Department rooms, and 14 surgical suites. By the numbers: 10,746 annual admissions, 46,479 annual emergency visits, and $62.9 million in uncompensated and charity care provided annually.

St. Anthony Medical Campus is a level I trauma center equipped with a dedicated trauma room, T-10 , which is the only surgical suite of its kind in Colorado. It also operates Flight for Life Colorado, providing emergency air transport throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.

St. Anthony Hospital is treating heart attacks 38 minutes faster than the national average and recently received the 2011 American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline® Silver Receiving Award. It is also the only hospital in the region and one of few in the country offering balloon cryoablation, a breakthrough treatment for atrial fibrillation.

The stroke program holds a Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and has earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association “Get with the Guidelines - Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award.“

Da Vinci® Minimally Invasive Surgery technology allows surgeons to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures such as prostatectomy, hysterectomy and more through very small incisions with unmatched precision. St. Anthony hospital is the first medical center in Colorado, the rocky mountain region and one of only a few nationwide to enhance its daVinci SI Surgical System with near-infrared fluorescence image-guided technology .

St. Anthony Hospital has the only combined Novalis Tx TM and RapidArc TM radiotherapy technology in Denver or the Rocky Mountain region. St. Anthony Hospital founded and operates Flight For Life Colorado, the nation’s first civilian hospital-based emergency medical transport program.

Significant Projects

Medication reconciliation has been a major project in the Emergency Department over the past year. The ED pharmacist and technician are required to provide medication history information on all admitted patients coming through the department. This vastly improves the accuracy of the information used for physician medication orders when patients transfer to inpatient status. In 2013, the pharmacy department transitioned into a preceptor site for 4th year pharmacy students for two local colleges of pharmacy. In addition, St. Anthony is beginning it’s first pharmacy residency program which is scheduled to start this summer. Many other ED projects include participation in multiple committees, submission of articles to pharmacy portion of the ED newsletter, protocol review, and updating faculty on new medications and order processes.

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

“Emergency medicine pharmacy services are rapidly expanding across the country, and many hospitals are finally realizing how helpful this service can be when properly executed. Most colleges of pharmacy do very little to prepare you for this career choice, so be prepared to not have all of the answers right away. It is important to keep open lines of communication between your providers, nursing staff, and yourself. Learn something new every day and ask a lot of questions because a lot of emergency medicine isn’t done by the book. Before long, you will be a very appreciated and irreplaceable member of the team.”

ASHP’s Value to Members

“Participating in the Advisory Group on Emergency Care has definitely kept me up to date on the latest advancements in ED pharmacy. It has also allowed me to have a group of colleagues to offer solutions to issues that I might not have come across previously.”

“ASHP is at the forefront of pharmacy expansion and provides valuable resources to its members. The organization is constantly promoting our profession and continuing our professional growth.”