Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Pharmacy Practice

  • Greater adherence to diabetes drugs linked to less hospital use, could save billions [article]

    Medication adherence/compliance is an important issue for all patients with chronic disease, but some are potentially worth more in healthcare dollars than others. Disease states like diabetes, heart failure, asthma and HIV/AIDS, among others rely heavily on proper medication use to prevent frequent visits to urgent care centers, or in worst case scenarios hospital admissions. It’s not hard to imagine where reducing urgent care visits and hospitalizations could add up quickly.

    Medication adherence/compliance is also one of those areas where it makes sense for pharmacists to be heavily involved. A little proactive counseling, MTM and follow-up with patients goes a long way. The abstract below makes no mention of pharmacists, nor does it mention how they mined their data. If I had to guess I’d say they used insurance claims data to get their information. Not the most accurate way to go about it, but interesting nonetheless.

  • Saturday morning coffee [August 18 2012]

    So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

    The coffee mug to the right is my trophy for winning the 2010 ASHP Midyear Twitter contest. It was the second year in a row that I was voted winner of the Midyear tweeting contest. I have since retired. The mug was accompanied by a $50 Best Buy gift card. I can’t remember what I purchased with the gift card, but I’m sure it was something cool.

    - The Bourne Legacy was the new #1 at the box office last weekend, knocking the Dark Knight Rises off its perch. My family and I saw it. It was good, but not great. I would see it again. The problem with a new Bourne movie is that Matt Damon is who I think of when someone says “Bourne” regardless of whether or not the movie is about his character. Don’t expect The Bourne Legacy to sit in the number one spot for long. I think The Expendables 2 will likely take over the top spot next week. I’ll certainly help it gain the title as it’s on my movie agenda for this weekend.
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  • Infographic for future of RFID

    Found this little jewel over at the ThinkMagic website.

    According to the commentary: “There is no doubt that over the next decade, RFID systems will become an integral part of the consumer and business experience. The convergence of wireless technologies will be augmented by RFID systems. The development of passive RFID as part of this platform will be driven by the potential to measure, report and monetize a growing number of transactions in the physical world.  Purpose-built systems will incorporate passive sensors and computational systems will emerge.  In certain applications, it is hard to imagine everyday physical objects without “built-in” RFID.” – RFID is one of those technologies that should be used more in healthcare, but isn’t. It’s inexplicable.
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  • IV room technology …just sayin’

    From a recent article in August 2012 issue of Pharmacy Practice News:

    Within the first month of implementation [of a bar-code medication preparation (BCMP) system], 85% of all IV drugs in the children’s hospital IV room were covered by the BCMP system, which does the following: “prints” labels to a touchscreen computer from which a technician can pick which dose he or she wants to prepare; verifies via bar-code technology that the correct medication and diluent were chosen, provides instructions to technicians about how make the preparation, allows technicians to take pictures of the preparation process and automatically time stamps each step in that process for future record keeping and management reporting.

    The unique bar code that is assigned to each product then can be used to track the medication to the nursing unit, or whatever end location has been provided, with a location bar code.

    Since the implementation of the BCMP IV system, which both Drs. Fortier and Maughan describe as a “best practice for the near future,” MUSC staff have seen “eight to 10 medications a day that could have been an error [with] the old system,” according to Dr. Maughan. “That represents 1.3% to 3% of the total number of doses dispensed.”

    It’s no secret that I think the IV room is an area that pharmacy has yet to address properly when it comes to automation and technology. We simple haven’t developed a product that will change the way pharmacy compounds IV’s. I have some thoughts on that, but will keep them offline for now. If you’re interested in talking about the future of IV room practice feel free to drop me a line. Sorry, I digress.
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  • Timely webinar from Pharmacy OneSource: Maximizing the Use of Single-Dose Vials

    I wrote about the change in CMS policy regarding single-dose vials a few weeks ago. It looks like I may not be the only one that’s interested in the topic. Pharmacy OneSource is offering a webinar on August 8 titled “Maximizing the Use of Single-Dose Vials“. The speaker is Eric Kastango. Eric is one of, if not the, foremost authorities on all things pharmacy cleanroom and USP <797>. He knows his stuff. I had the pleasure of hearing Eric speak at the ASHP Midyear in Anaheim in 2010.

    There’s no cost to attend the webinar, so do yourself a favor if you have any interest in the topic and register. I was planning to attend, but have a scheduling conflict. I’ll have to grab the slides later.

    You can register here.

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  • Effect of a Pharmacist Intervention on Clinically Important Medication Errors After Hospital Discharge [article]

    Ann Intern Med. 3 July 2012;157(1):1-10

    A study looking at pharmacist-assited med rec, counseling and telephone follow-up after dischage for adults hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes or acute decompensated heart failure. According to the article pharmacist intervention didn’t do much in the way of reducing “clinically important medication errors“, but may have led to fewer potential ADEs.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [July 14 2012]

    So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the taps that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

    The coffee mug to the right was part of a Pharmacy Week swag bag when I was still a real pharmacist. Pharmacy Week occurs yearly in October. It’s an attempt by some of the professional pharmacy organizations to increase the publics awareness of the profession. It also gives the pharmacists employer a chance to hand our “atta’ boys”. One year I received a folding beach chair, another year I recieved a water bottle, and so on. Not sure what year I received this mug, though. I haven’t actually worked as a pharmacist for a couple of years so it’s been at least that long.
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  • Color to differentiate information on pharmacy labels

    I put this up the other day at my Talyst blog. I don’t often cross post between that blog and this one because I tend to keep the “corporate” blog a bit more watered down. But in this case I thought it was worth it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the use of color in pharmacy labels. I’m not sure why we don’t see more of it in pharmacy. It may have something to do with the limited number of suitable color printers and label stock. As prevalent as color printing is in the consumer world, you’d think it would be simple. Unfortunately it’s not.

    I for one think color has a place in the pharmacy. It could be used to improve patient safety, and when used appropriately improve workflow and operations.
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  • CMS allows repackaging of single-dose vials “under certain circumstances”

    Each Friday I receive a newsletter from CompoundingToday.com. The newsletter features an editorial from Dr. Loyd V. Allen, Jr, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding.

    A couple of weeks ago the editorial focused on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) newly clarified position on the use of sing-dose vials in medication distribution. It’s a rather important piece of information that I haven’t seen elsewhere. You’d think hospitals would be jumping all over this as it not only saves waste, i.e. cost, but can help with the drug shortage issue as well. It’s hard to say why I haven’t heard more about it, but I haven’t. Go figure.

    Anyway, Dr. Allen’s editorial is reproduced in its entirety below. The CMS document can be found here (PDF).
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  • Teaching Medication Adherence in US Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy [article]

    An article in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education takes a look at “the nature and extent of medication adherence education in US colleges and schools of pharmacy”. Surprise, the authors found that “Intermediate and advanced concepts in medication adherence, such as conducting interventions, are not adequately covered in pharmacy curriculums”. Disappointing outcome as medication adherence is one of those areas where I think pharmacists could make a significant impact in not only healthcare outcomes, but reducing costs associated with patient care as well.

    The authors used a combination of surveys to gather information: “(1) a national Web-based survey of faculty members at colleges and schools of pharmacy, (2) a national Web-based survey of student chapters of 2 national pharmacy organizations, Phi Delta Chi (PDC) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), and (3) conference calls with a convenience sample of pharmacy preceptors and faculty members.”  While the study isn’t exactly comprehensive, I think it may be representative of what’s really going on in pharmacy schools these days. Let’s face it, the focus is on “clinical” activities of which medication adherence is often overlooked.

    I won’t bore you with the details as the full text of the article is available for free at the journal’s website. What I will say is that it appears that pharmacy schools teach medication adherence, but fail to dig deep enough or allow students to participate in a meaningful manner when given an opportunity to become involved. This is similar to my experience in pharmacy school. The only place I was really exposed to medication adherence was during a six week internal med rotation. Other than that the subject was only covered in passing.

    [cite]10.5688/ajpe76579[/cite]