Julieth Formosa

Her Story

Julieth Formosa, Pharm.D., BCPS, CPh, received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University in Palm Beach, Florida. She completed her PGY1 pharmacy residency at Cleveland Clinic Weston in Weston, Florida, and is board certified in pharmacotherapy. Dr. Formosa is also a consultant pharmacist and has a pharmacy teaching certificate from FAMU, an antimicrobial stewardship certificate through MAD-ID, and a medication safety certificate from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

Prior to her current role, Dr. Formosa worked in emergency departments for Baptist Hospital, South Miami Hospital, and Homestead Hospital. She was previously a clinical coordinator at Mount Sinai Medical Center and was responsible for their Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. She is currently the Medication Safety Officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center, overseeing safe medication management. Dr. Formosa’s duties include reviewing medication safety alerts, adverse drug events, and implementing policies and procedures that have medication safety implications.

Facility

Founded in 1949, Mount Sinai Medical Center is the largest private, independent, not-for-profit teaching hospital in South Florida. As a medical center whose mission is to provide high-quality health care to our diverse community, enhanced through teaching, research, charity care, and financial responsibility, Mount Sinai is committed to providing access to expert, compassionate care to all. 

Mount Sinai’s ongoing partnerships with New York’s prestigious Columbia University provide our community access to the only Ivy League-affiliated cardiovascular, urology, orthopedics, and cancer programs in South Florida. These programs combine the strengths of two leaders, enhancing the outstanding level of service and providing greater access to state-of-the-art technology, research, and treatment options.

Among a select few original statutory teaching hospitals in the state, Mount Sinai is committed to teaching the next generation of physicians, training 210 medical residents and fellows in 15 specalties each year.

In addition, Mount Sinai is committed to offering our patients easy access to a network of multispecialty offices in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. The medical center operates eleven facilities, including three emergency centers.

Recent Significant Projects

Over the past twelve months, I have contributed to the following areas:

1.  Assisting with the COVID-19 vaccination clinic process, including the safety portion of the review process prior to administering 1st and 2nd doses, auditing vaccination records, and preparing an anaphylaxis workflow that included epinephrine administration by nurses.
2.  Ongoing reporting and communicating with FDA's VAERS of all serious COVID-related adverse events.
3.  Overseeing Mount Sinai’s controlled substance process, including continual investigations of discrepancies, education to staff on correct processes, and training of diversion prevention for pharmacy technicians. I also led the improvement in BCMA scanning of controlled substances seen within the past twelve months as part of ongoing tracking, reporting, and identifying scanning compliance issues within departments.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

I was recently selected as a member of the Compounding Practice Adivsory Group within the Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners.

Why did you become involved in ASHP?

I have been involved with ASHP on and off since pharmacy school. As a pharmacy student, I participated in programs that were sponsored by ASHP. As a residency candidate and later a resident, ASHP's Midyear Clinical Meeting really highlighted the importance of ASHP for me.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

It is important to approach each situation, medication error, and incident with curiosity rather than assumptions. When investigating why a medication error occurred, it is usually multifactorial. Unless you walk through the process with the person reporting, you will only uncover the first layer, which is not usually the systemic one. It is also extremely important to listen to other disciplines. As pharmacists, we know our medications, but we cannot assume to know nursing or physician processes when preventing medication errors.

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?

ASHP's content, webinars, meetings, and guidelines are invaluable in any pharmacy practice. The toolkits and forums are a wealth of knowledge and build a community of colleagues that shares ideas, assistance, and recommendations.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP is an opportunity for networking, growing our profession, and bringing attention to the value that we as pharmacists have to offer. This season of the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging, and I am grateful to have a resource such as ASHP to both lead and guide us through the many challenges that we have sustained in supply chain issues, shortages, treatment guidelines, burnout, and much more.