Founded in 1877 as Lexington ’s first hospital, Saint Joseph is a 468-bed acute, medical, and surgical facility, which provides a variety of specialty services to the communities of Central Kentucky including cardiothoracic surgery and interventional cardiology, general and orthopedic surgery, stroke/neurology, and oncology.  For years, SJH has been nationally recognized for outstanding care. In 2006 the pharmacy program at SJH received the ASHP Best Practice Award, the KSHP Institution of the Year Award, and the KSHP Pharmacist of the Year Award.  These distinctions acknowledge a strong commitment by SJH to provide its patients with outstanding service and premier pharmaceutical care.

 The pharmacy staff is comprised of hospital-based pharmacists, clinical pharmacists, clinical pharmacy specialists, pharmacy practice residents, and technical staff. Members of the pharmacy staff provide both centralized and decentralized pharmaceutical care and patient education throughout the institution to assure safe, accurate, rational and cost-effective medication therapy.  Work activities focus on the provision of pharmaceutical care within the department’s clinical role in assuring patient-centered, rational drug therapy. 

The pharmacy is fully automated with McKesson Robot-Rx, McKesson MedCarousel, McKesson PacMed and McKesson NarcStation.  McKesson AcuDose technology is utilized via unit-based dispensing cabinets throughout the patient care areas. Technology for bar-coded unit-dose packaging and centralized distribution is also utilized within the pharmacy department.  Clinical pharmacy services are offered in collaboration with health care professionals for the cure and prevention of disease and/or symptoms of disease. Members of the hospital-based and clinical pharmacy staff provide decentralized pharmaceutical care and patient education throughout Saint Joseph daily to deliver quality, patient-focused medication therapy.