Residency Showcase Program Listings

As a member of one of the world's largest integrated health systems, VA Houston Healthcare System serves as the primary health care provider for almost 130,000 Veterans in southeast Texas. This facility includes outpatient clinics in Beaumont, Conroe, Galveston, Humble, Katy, Lake Jackson, Lufkin, Richmond, Sugar Land, Texas City, and Tomball. VA Houston outpatient clinics log over one million outpatient visits annually. For more than 50 years, VA Houston has provided clinical training for healthcare professionals through affiliations with the Baylor College of Medicine and four colleges of pharmacy. VA Houston operates one of the largest VA residency programs with over 270 slots in forty sub-specialties. Over 2,000 pharmacy, nursing, dietetics, social work, physical therapy, and medical students receive training at VA Houston each year. Located on a 119-acre campus, VA Houston Healthcare System is a state-of-the-art facility with 349 acute care hospital beds, a 40-bed Spinal Cord Injury Center, and a 111-bed Community Living Center for long-term care. The MEDVAMC uses robotic computer-controlled helpmates to transport medications, food, and supplies to patient care areas. Ad...ditionally, the outpatient pharmacy uses a robotics system to fill more than 1,000 prescriptions daily. The pharmacy service is progressive and growing. Over 66 clinical pharmacist practitioners and 100 clinical pharmacists provide patient care services in a variety of specialties. Clinical pharmacy specialists and PGY2 pharmacy residents with a scope of practice have a unique role within VA’s patient-centered care model due to their extensive experience in managing complex medication regimens to treat the most common chronic disease states. This scope of practice includes collaborative medication management, which entails collaborative agreements with physicians or other independent practitioners wherein clinical pharmacists may perform some or all facets of comprehensive medication management. This may include the authority to prescribe medication regimens, order related laboratory tests, and perform physical measurement and objective assessments to facilitate patient care. There are many opportunities to develop innovative and advanced patient care practices at this facility. The PGY1 pharmacy residency provides a comprehensive experience in a wide variety of clinical pharmacy practice settings. Core rotations include infectious diseases, internal medicine I & II, practice management as well as longitudinal ambulatory care clinics. Onsite elective rotations include anticoagulation, cardiology, critical care, emergency medicine, HIV/hepatitis C, hematology-oncology, home-based primary care, geriatrics, PACT/CBOC primary care, psychiatry, surgery, solid organ transplant, and women's health. Offsite elective rotations include critical care/total parenteral nutrition, transplant service, and academia (affiliation with The University of Houston College of Pharmacy). Residents are required to present formal lectures to pharmacy staff and students, in-services, and to complete a research/quality improvement project as well as a medication use evaluation project. Residents will also receive their Teaching Certificate through the University of Houston Teaching and Scholarship in Academia Program. The purpose of the PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center is to prepare pharmacists to become independent clinical practitioners of direct patient care in both inpatient and primary care settings, with the skills necessary for attainment of a clinical pharmacy position, adjunct faculty position at a college of pharmacy, and/or further training through a second year post-graduate program in a specialty area of practice.