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Mobile health apps not meeting expectations

By Jerry Fahrni on July 19, 2016

I read with great interest a recent piece at FierceHealthcare. According to a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, health apps aren’t living up to the hype. To me, the entire field has been overblown from the beginning. “A new UC San Francisco study … revealed nearly every participant who used health apps […]

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Prescription bottle innovation

By Jerry Fahrni on July 11, 2016

I was browsing for something the other day and got sidetracked by a link about prescription bottles. You know how it is, you start scouring the internet for information on antibiotic dosing in CRRT and end up looking at cat videos. It happens. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that everyone has seen a prescription […]

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Electronic alert overload

By Jerry Fahrni on July 1, 2016

The Washington Post: “Something similar is happening to doctors, nurses and pharmacists. And when they’re hit with too much information, the result can be a health hazard… It’s called alert fatigue… Electronic health records increasingly include automated alert systems pegged to patients’ health information… The number of these pop-up messages has become unmanageable, doctors and […]

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The scope of IV room errors

By Jerry Fahrni on June 24, 2016

There’s an interesting article in Pharmacy Practice News this month (In the IV Room, Robots Come to the Rescue). While the title of the article is a bit misleading – I think ‘rescue’ is a bit strong – it does contain quite a bit of good information. The article discusses some of the technology being […]

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JerryFahrni.com Podcast | Episode 12: Pharmacy IV room discussion with Ray Vrabel, PharmD

By Jerry Fahrni on April 17, 2016

Show Notes: Host: Jerry Fahnri, Pharm.D. Jerry and Ray talk about the pharmacy IV room, specifically where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we’re headed. Topics include workflow, the impact of USP <797> on pharmacy iv room operations, and thoughts on currently available iv workflow management system technologies. You can learn more about Ray […]

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Frequency of and risk factors for med errors during order verification

By Jerry Fahrni on April 8, 2016

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 […]

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Novel formulation of ethanol for glove decontamination to prevent Clostridium difficile contamination

By Jerry Fahrni on March 9, 2016

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 […]

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JerryFahrni.com Podcast | Episode 6: Stability of CSPs in Syringes

By Jerry Fahrni on October 12, 2015

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 […]

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Initial reaction to FDA stance on syringes as standalone storage container

By Jerry Fahrni on October 9, 2015

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 […]

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Is multi-dose packaging really a solution to medication adherence?

By Jerry Fahrni on September 8, 2015

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 […]

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