A friend and colleague of mine and I were talking about pharmacy order verification and errors the other day. Many (all?) acute care pharmacies use the number of orders entered/verified by pharmacists per unit of time as a performance metric. The theory being that the more orders you verify the busier you are and therefore… Read More »
Clostridium difficile is a major problem in hospitals across the U.S. According to the CDC, it is estimated that C. difficile caused almost half a million infections in the U.S. in 2011, and approximately 83,000 of the patients who developed C. difficile experienced at least one recurrence and 29,000 died within 30 days of the… Read More »
Jerry talks about the problem with storing medications in plastic syringes and potency loss. Recently the FDA notified ASHP that no plastic syringe is approved for use as a final storage device. Jerry discusses the issue and how it will impact pharmacies in the near future. Show Notes: Host: Jerry Fahnri, Pharm.D. Articles discussed in… Read More »
This morning I woke to the news that No Syringe Is Approved as a Standalone Storage Container, FDA Says. This I’m sure is in response to the recent issue with BD syringes and drug stability. I need to think about this more, but my gut reaction is that this is huge and will have a… Read More »
Multi-dose packaging has been a part of pharmacy for longer than I’ve been a pharmacist. It’s mostly been limited to long term care (LTC), such as nursing homes, rehab facilities, etc. It’s not something that’s commonly used in acute care hospitals for a host of reasons, most notably medication regimens frequently change in acute care… Read More »
I wrote about BD Intelliport back in January. It’s an impressive system. Others think so, too.
“Data is variously described as the oxygen of the digital economy or the new raw material of the 21st century.“-Nigel Shadbolt There are more than a few issues with today’s medication order entry systems. However, in this post I want to focus on only two. First, alert fatigue. As a pharmacist that has entered his… Read More »
Not exactly pharmacy technology. However, SMART-IV involves integration of iv infusions with bar code scanning at the patient bedside. That’s kind of pharmacy related, in a sort of roundabout way. Check the video below for a look at how the system works. The commentary is in Dutch, so if you don’t speak Dutch you might… Read More »
Dogma: belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted (Merriam-Webster) I have opinions, lots of opinions. And like most, I believe my opinions are valid; it’s human nature. It’s not uncommon for me to find people within a group that agree and disagree with… Read More »
I previously wrote about a live webinar put on by ASHP – Improving Safety and Efficiency in the IV Room: Key Features of Automated Workflow Systems – on Wednesday, May 20 2015. The webinar was made up of three separate, 20 minute presentations: Medication Error Reduction Strategy Using Dispense Preparation and Dispense Check by Tom Lausten, RPh,… Read More »