A very general question about hospital infusion centers

[dipena]

Hi, there. I am working on a project about hospital infusion centers (outpatient). (I'm a writer, not a nurse.) I have a couple of very basic questions about organization and staffing, if anyone would care to answer them:

1. How is an infusion center organized? Who is at the top? Is there usually a medical director and a nurse manager? If so, is the medical director usually an MD, or can it be a PharmD?

2. It sounds like scheduling can be a very big task, especially at a larger infusion center. Who does the scheduling? Are there one or more people dedicated to that task, and if so, what type of person (ie, nurse, administrator, etc.)?

3. Do you think most infusion centers have a dedicated oncology clinical pharmacist working right on site? I can't quite figure out what role the oncology clinical pharmacist plays in a hospital-based infusion clinic...

4. In your experience, do physician assistants and/or nurse practitioners work in hospital infusion centers, and if so, how do their roles and responsibilities differ from the infusion nurse's?

If anyone can help with these questions, I would be eternally grateful. :redbeatheI have done a lot of reading but that is no substitute for actual experience in the field.

Thank you so much.

Dianne