Box Butte General Hospital: News- Pharmasist 06 2010.

BBGH welcomes new consulting pharmacist to its staff

06/24/10

Dr. John Argyle (at left), with Dr. John Ruffin, Jr., family
physician and Chief of Staff at BBGH, during a visit in
the hospital patient care unit. Box Butte General Hospital (BBGH) has a new consulting pharmacist on its staff – Dr. John Argyle, PharmD. Dr. Argyle is a man of many talents, degrees and work experience, who has seen his career span from Australia as a microbiologist to the state of California as a biochemist and finally as a pharmacist at BBGH.

He earned a BS in Animal Science and a BS in Bacteriology in 1980 at the University of Idaho. Dr. Argyle obtained his Master of Science degree in Ruminant Bacteriology in 1984 from the University of Illinois. Ruminant Bacteriology is the study of organisms living in the stomachs of cattle, sheep and goats that digest cellulose, allowing them to live on grass. From there he earned his PhD in Nutrition in 1987 from the University of California in Davis, with minors in Microbial Physiology (the study of how bacteria ‘make a living’); and Physiological Chemistry (the study of the biochemistry of mammals).

“That led to me doing postdoctoral (additional studies) work in Australia for three years,” he said. “They were trying to genetically engineer rumen microbes. I was doing molecular biology, but what they really wanted me for was the fact that they had a group that was doing molecular biology that didn’t know anything about agriculture, and a group doing microbiology that didn’t understand what the nutrition group was doing. They needed someone who could move from one group to the other, explaining to a microbiologist what the molecular biologist wanted, and explaining to the microbiologist what the nutritionist wanted. That was my job.”

In 1991 he began another round of postdoctoral at the University of Missouri on the studies of Desulfovibrio, a sulfate reducing bacteria that is an important factor in the corrosion of iron pipes in soils; then another postdoctoral stint from 1993 to 1995 at the University of Washington in Seattle on Methanococcus, a methane producing organism useful in bioremediation. Bioremediation is any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return a natural environment altered by contaminants back to its original state or condition.

That last academic effort led to a career as a Research and Development Scientist with Biolog, Inc, of Hayward, CA (located in the Bay area of that state). From 1996 to 2003, he worked on identification systems for anaerobic bacteria (which live without oxygen) as well as identification systems for fungi.

“When I was laid off by Biolog in 2003, I found that no one wanted microbiologists or PhDs at that time,” he ruefully recounted. “So … I stumbled across pharmacy and thought to myself … ‘I’m a microbiologist, a field that can be important in pharmacy. I’m a nutritionist which is useful in pharmacy. I’m a biochemist, which would be helpful in understanding the metabolism of drugs … All of that helped in my decision to attend pharmacy school.”

From 2004-05 he attended Boise State University, and then was accepted at the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy in 2005, obtaining his degree in pharmacy in 2009.

Now that he is employed at Box Butte General Hospital, Dr. Argyle will focus his expertise on being available for consultation. “My duties here at Box Butte General will be to round with the doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants as they visit patients, be a resource for anyone staffed by the hospital who has a question about pharmaceuticals, and be available for patient education,” he said. “Those are the three main areas of my responsibilities. We will maintain the remote pharmacy setup we have now at the hospital, with Sharon Groskopf, RN, BSN, MBA, managing the pharmacy and her staff continuing to be the pharmacy workforce. I’ll be a resource for them as well.”

He said the advantage of not having him in the pharmacy is the fact that he won’t be on call 24/7. “Having a pharmacist on call 24/7 has been a problem for the hospital,” he explained. “From what I understand, it made it hard to find a replacement for their pharmacist when he wanted a vacation. If I go on vacation, they can still ask questions through the University of Nebraska Medical Center.”

Dr. Argyle said the advantage of having a pharmacist doing rounds with medical providers centers on the fact that he can give his advice on dosage, drug profile interactions, or provide suggestions on other drug classes that may not come readily to mind at the very moment such advice is needed or requested. “Doing that allows me to give advice on the spot while they are writing their orders, as apposed to calling them up in the middle of the afternoon when they are doing something else,” he said. “This way both of us are focused on that particular patient at that particular time.”

Patient education is another important aspect of his duties. Dr. Argyle can go to the patient and help them understand what the drug is they are being put on and what it is supposed to do. “Mostly, I’ll be explaining why they are on it, why it is important to take that drug, and how to take that drug,” he said.

He joined the BBGH staff on June 9, 2010. “I’m getting my feet on the ground. There is always a lot of orientation needed the first few weeks … especially in the area of tornado drills,” he joked. “We don’t have tornadoes in Idaho (well we do, but nothing this often). Two weeks ago, I got chased from the room of my motel down into the hallway on the first floor. But the friendliness … I’m very impressed by how friendly the people in this area are. When I was interviewing for this job, I looked up information about the hospital on the (BBGH) web site … and was very impressed by the range of services offered by this 25-bed hospital. During the interview it was very obvious that BBGH was seeking input from the community so that it could meet the needs of the community. I’m looking forward to working here.”