Pharmacy Practice
Nonadherence to diabetes medications costly
This is follow-up commentary to an article I Tweeted about earlier this week. JCP: “[Express Scripts] found that patients who were adherent to oral diabetes drugs had 235 fewer emergency department visits and 50 fewer inpatient hospitalizations per 1000 patients, resulting in an average of $500 saved per patients and a total decrease of $210 […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged Medication Adherence, Medication Safety | Permalink | Leave a response
[Article] Evaluation of real-time data obtained from gravimetric preparation…
I am currently reading an article on the use of gravimetrics in the preparation of hazardous CSPs published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics.* The article addresses data collected from a large-scale, retrospective analysis of medication errors identified during the preparation of antineoplastic drugs, aka chemotherapy. The paper looks at 759 060 doses […]
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Time to revisit gravimetrics in the IV room
Summary: if you’re preparing compounded sterile preparations (CSPs) in a pharmacy IV room, you should be using gravimetric analysis to determine the appropriate dose/volume. Pharmacy practice is easy. Our job is to provide the right drug, at the right dose, to the right patient in the safest, most efficient, cost-effective manner possible. Simple. Currently, the […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged IV ROOM, Pharmacy Practice | Permalink | 5 Responses
Compounding Today: state board of pharmacy concerns with USP <800>
Each Friday the CompoundingToday Newsletter faithfully appears in my inbox. The newsletter features commentary by Lloyd V. Allen, Jr., Ph.D., RPh, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding. Dr. Allen is a legend in the pharmacy compounding world for both sterile and non-sterile products. He was someone that I looked up to during my […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged IV ROOM, Patient Safety, Regulation, USP 800 | Permalink | 1 Response
Automated detection of LASA medication errors
Look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) medications – also referred to as sound-alike, look-alike drugs (SALAD) (1) — have been a thorn in the side of healthcare professionals for as long as I’ve been a pharmacist. Many solutions to the LASA problem have been proposed, including Tall Man Lettering (2), physical separation of look-alike drugs, printing of both […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged Medication Errors, Patient Safety | Permalink | Leave a response
EHRs are an untapped, but almost impossible to use, health resource
We’re all familiar with the promise of “big data” in healthcare. Crud, I’m a huge fan of using data. I think the amount of information inside an EHR has the potential to do a lot of wonderful things, not only for healthcare in general but specifically for a pharmacist. How many kinetic consults have been […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged Data, EHR, Pharmacy Practice | Permalink | 3 Responses
A cautionary tale for healthcare. A lesson for pharmacy.
A couple of days ago I read an interesting piece by John Halamka over at healthsystemCIO.com. In it, Halamka shares two stories about purchasing parts for some projects. One part required a lot of legwork and took a month to secure. The other required a quick Amazon search and less that 24 hours to obtain. […]
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Thoughts on my time with DoseEdge Pharmacy Workflow Manager
Yesterday, I had a great opportunity to spend the day using DoseEdge in its native environment. That is to say, I staffed at a facility that was using DoseEdge in its cleanroom to prepare CSPs, including patient-specific products as well as stock bags, TPNs, etc. I’ve used DoseEdge for brief periods in the past. I’ve […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged IV ROOM, Patient Safety, Pharmacy Practice, Pharmacy Technology | Permalink | 10 Responses
Allergies and Electronic Health Records, we’re doing it wrong
ACP Hospitalist: “About 10% of patients in the United States report a penicillin allergy, but most of these patients are not currently allergic, meaning that they could safely take drugs in the beta-lactam class. “The vast majority of patients who think they have penicillin allergies actually don’t when they undergo penicillin allergy skin testing,” said […]
Posted in Pharmacy Practice | Tagged Allergies, EHR, Pharmacy Practice | Permalink | Leave a response