Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Pharmacy

  • Saturday morning coffee [March 16 2013]

    MUG_ASHPSM2011So 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 was presented to me as a gift from ASHP for winning the 2011 ASHP Summer Meeting Twitter Contest. Not to be confused with the one I put up last August for the 2010 ASHP Midyear Twitter contest. The mug was accompanied by a $50 Best Buy gift card; very nice. The meeting was held in Denver, CO and was the first ASHP Summer Meeting I ever attended. The Summer Meeting is quite a bit different from the Midyear Meeting held in December each year. Midyear is much larger and has a much wider variety of educational sessions. Midyear also has a bigger exhibitor area. With all that said I found the Summer Meeting quite enjoyable as it had several informatics related sessions that I was able to attend. It was the last pharmacy conference that I was able to enjoy as an attendee.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [March 9 2013]

    MUG_genericSo 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 isn’t one of my personal mugs. Instead it’s the kind of generic mug you get in cheesy hotel restaurants. And that’s because I’m not at home. I’m in Las Vegas for my daughter’s volleyball tournament. In lieu of that, and the fact that I had to crawl off into a “quiet” corner to open my laptop, I’m going to make this quick.

    Jack the Giant Slayer was #1 at the box office last weekend. Not a big surprise as again there was little in the way of competition at the box office for a second week in a row. Jack brought in a measly $27 Million on its opening weekend. Not too bad, but when you consider the $195 Million production budget that makes it a flop. Yikes! My family and I saw Jack over the weekend. We enjoyed it. Identity Thief continues to do well as it came in second place for weekend box office totals.
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  • #1 thing to consider when buying pharmacy automation and/or technology…

    There are a ton of things to consider when you’re thinking about putting new technology in the pharmacy. You have to consider the cost, the impact on your operations, the reputation of the company that you’re buying from, what type of technology you’re going to buy, and so on and so forth ad infinitum.

    However, the number one thing you must consider before taking the plunge is whether or not the technology fits your dispensing model. Do you still do a cart fill? Are you completely decentralized? Are you using a just-in-time dispensing model? Will the technology that I’m looking at fit what I hope to accomplish? You need to think about that long and hard before making a decision.

    It’s like buying a new vehicle. You certainly don’t buy a Toyota Prius if you need to pull a 24 foot Centurion Enzo SV244 – a really nice boat – to the lake on weekends. No, instead you buy a new Ford Super Duty truck. I know that makes perfect sense to you, yet I hear people frequently say “it doesn’t fit the way we work” when talking about pharmacy automation and technology. When they say that, the first thing that pops into my mind is “then why did you buy it?”. It’s a question that needs serious consideration because some of this stuff is expensive.

    I experienced this firsthand in my previous role as an IT pharmacist. We installed new technology that didn’t really fit our distribution model all that well. We tried to cram the technology into an manual process. Didn’t work. I fought it for a few months until the light bulb finally went off. Once we got out act together we redesigned the process around the technology. We took advantage of the automation and filled in the gaps where necessary. It fundamentally changed the way we did things, and in the process improved the overall distribution process.

    So before you go and buy a robot, or a carousel, or a high-speed packager, or a compounding machine, make sure you ask yourself how you’re going to use it.  This stuff isn’t top secret. Do a quick Google search. Watch some videos. Talk with hospitals that do the same things as you.

    In a nutshell do your homework before taking the plunge because once you take the plunge and decide you’ve made a mistake you can only do one of two things: 1) change automation, or 2) change the way you work.

  • MedFolio, more medication compliance technology

    Seems like everyone has some piece of technology designed to help patients with medication adherence and/or compliance.

    What’s interesting to me is the number of different approaches there are out there to solve the problem. MedFolio looks similar to the old style medication organizers. It’s probably the most labor intensive solution I’ve seen, but then again it may be the most useful. Hard to say. From the videos I found on YouTube it looks like it’s been around for a while.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [March 2 2013]

    MUG_WisconsinWelcome to March everyone. 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….

    I picked up the coffee mug to the right in Fitchburg, WI last summer while on a business trip. I drove there from Chicago after stopping off to visit a hospital in Winfield, IL. Wisconsin was a pretty nice place to visit in the summer. I wasn’t able to do a bunch of touristy stuff, but I did get a chance to see a movie at one of the nicest movie theaters I’ve ever been in. The theater was big, and it had a piano in the lobby. Strange thing about Wisconsin, they have the nicest highway rest stops I’ve ever used. If you’re ever in California I’d avoid the rest stops; good place to skip.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [February 23 2013]

    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….

    MUG_MinneapolisThe coffee mug from the right is straight out of the Twin Cities area, i.e. the Minneapolis-Saint Paul in Minnesota. I picked it up at a Caribou Coffee shop in Minneapolis. Apparently Caribou Coffee is a locally owned business in the Twin Cities area. I have no idea really, but that’s what I was told and the website does list a local address (3900 Lakebreeze Ave N., Minneapolis, MN 55429). The coffee is pretty good I thought the mug looked cool. It was the first time I had ever been to the Minneapolis area. I don’t recommend it as a tourist spot in the winter. It was cold boys and girls. The first night I was there it was a cool 0 (zero) degrees F. One neat thing about the trip was that I got a chance to go to the Mall of America. Impressive place.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [February 9 2013]

    MUG_ArizonaIt’s hard to believe that it’s February already.

    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….

    Last weekend I was on the road attending my daughter’s Power League volleyball tournament in Sacramento.  My brother Robert filled in for me admirably. I didn’t ask him to take up the reins, but I certainly appreciate him filling in the gap. Thanks, bro. Dig the mug by the way.

    I went through Phoenix, AZ twice this week while traveling for work, which made me think of the coffee mug to the right. It was once of four sent to me by Jason DeVillains last year. Jason is better known to many as The Cynical Pharmacist. Jason and I met via Twitter(@TheCynicalRPH) and have been chitchatting via the web ever since. Perhaps the next time I touch down in Phoenix I can lay over for a day and Jason and I can grab a cup o’ joe together. Jason also blogs over at The Cynical Pharmacist. Check it out.
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  • Quick review of things worth reading this week

    I missed my regular Saturday morning coffee post yesterday for a couple of reasons. I have a cold that has been kicking my butt all week. Not sure why this cold feels particularly weighty, but it does. Is it that I’m run down or that I’m aging? I pray that it’s the former, but fear that it is the latter. My good friends acetaminophen, antihistamine and decongestant have helped me through the week. Top that off with one of the worst travel weeks I can remember in a while and I’m ready for a day on the couch.

    Yesterday was a bit of a reprieve as I found myself in Los Angeles visiting my daughter and watching the UCLA men’s basketball team lose to Oregon in an exciting game. I would have preferred that UCLA won, but at least I had some downtime with my family and the weather in Los Angeles was spectacular.

    However, life goes on and there were at least a few things I read this week that are worth sharing:
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  • Saturday morning coffee [January 12 2013]

    Welcome to my first Saturday morning coffee post of 2013. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

    The coffee mug below was a Christmas present from my youngest daughter, Mikaela. Apparently she reads my blog; yeah, I’m as surprised by that as anyone. She thought I needed a customized coffee mug to go along with my Saturday morning coffee post. I’m thrilled to be displaying it here today for the first time. I had to move it down because it deserved an image from both sides.

    Christmas SMC Mug
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  • Year end thoughts 2012

    fathertime_babynewyear2This is my final post of 2012. Random thoughts about things that I’ve seen, heard and/or read over the past twelve months.

    Twenty-twelve was an interesting year for the Fahrni clan, and not in a good way. We lost one of our own and had some bad things happen. We also had some good times, but it won’t be a year that I’ll miss all that much.

    We all survived the Mayan Apocalypse

    We experienced the last repeating date of the century: 12-12-12
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