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To prevent the administration of excessive amounts of analgesia medication, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps offer several safety features (e.g., a "lockout interval" specifies both the minimum amount of time between each dose and an established maximum allowable amount of drug during a predefined time period). Despite such advantages, medication errors involving PCA pumps continue to occur.

A pilot project examining the value of incorporating electronically transmitted patient claims data into a health-system medication dispensing process has been pronounced a success by the hospital that implemented it.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has begun a study to examine the types of counseling hospitals offer patients to help them quit smoking. The goal of the study is to identify and evaluate strategies hospitals can use to help patients who smoke to kick the habit.

Institutional pharmacists should get ready for more intensive scrutiny of their operations next year. Half of the 2005 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) set by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations are directly related to pharmacy.

A fully automated pharmacy logistics system for oral solid medications that is capable of unit-packaging and single-dose bar-coding can cost less than $500,000, improve patient safety, and pay for itself in under two years through tight inventory control. So claim the distributors of one such system and some of its clients.

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices celebrates its 10th anniversary as a nonprofit organization this year. ISMP was established to educate the healthcare community about safe medication practices in order to reduce the threat of medication errors. The institute is also involved in a wide range of projects and services, including publishing medication safety newsletters, holding educational conferences, and providing on-site consulting to hospitals. ISMP has advo-cated for improvements in drug names, labeling, packaging, technology, and medication practices to reduce the risk of medication errors.

The Medicare quality improvement organization (QIO) IPRO in Lake Success, N.Y., has contacted 22 hospitals in downstate New York to learn what the facilities have been doing to reduce their rate of surgical site infections. It found that assertive action by health-system pharmacists has enhanced patient safety by improving the timeliness of antibiotic prophylaxis.

In 2004, one of the National Patient Safety Goals released by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations focused on improving safety when using high-alert medications, such as paralytic agents.

In an attempt to help more nursing home patients take advantage of the Medicare drug discount card program, Community Care Rx has sweetened the reimbursement deal for participating long-term care pharmacists.

Black box warnings to be added to all antidepressants

Methadone is the latest chronic pain medication to be called a killer. The New York Times, National Public Radio, and other media outlets point to a growing death toll involving methadone. So do a handful of state pharmacy boards.

Cholesterol is one of the hottest health topics this year. Almost everybody—from healthcare professionals to patients to drug companies to politicians—has been talking about it.

A Food & Drug Administration advisory panel has recommended black-box alerts for commonly used antidepressants, warning that the drugs increase the risk of suicide when used in children and adolescents.

The popular PBS television series, "History Detectives," has raised awareness of the challenges of documenting oral history. Pharmacy's own history detective, A. Jean Matuszak, can attest to the satisfaction of solving some mysteries from the past.

Has one pharmacy employee ever improperly shared his or her password with another employee? Do any of your patient profiles incorrectly reflect a pharmacist's initials as the dispenser of a prescription because the R.Ph. did not "log off" before leaving the Rx department?

With drug counterfeiting growing at an alarming rate both in the United States and abroad, it was appropriate that this subject was addressed at the recent Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP) annual meeting, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress 2004, held in New Orleans. FIP is a worldwide organization of national professional associations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists.

With drug counterfeiting growing at an alarming rate both in the United States and abroad, it was appropriate that this subject was addressed at the recent Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP) annual meeting, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress 2004, held in New Orleans. FIP is a worldwide organization of national professional associations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists.

On Aug. 30, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations posted a new look-alike/sound-alike drug list data file on its 2005 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) Web page. This is a list selected after a review of error report descriptions received by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and the United States Pharmacopoeia and other previously published lists.

Unless you've been living under a rock, as a healthcare professional, you must have heard something about the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. The first phase is already in full swing, with seniors selecting from a plethora of discount cards.

The prairie stone is a rock that is indigenous to Minnesota, and it is also the stone used to create the mortar and pestle. So when it came to naming their new Minneapolis-based pharmacy chain, the company's three partners found it a no-brainer. They dubbed it PrairieStone Pharmacy.

In 2003, more than 3.2 billion prescriptions were filled; that's an increase of more than 65% since 1992. This good news comes from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation's recently released 2004 Chain Pharmacy Industry Profile.

How is it going today?" This is a question that management likes to ask in the pharmacy. She walks in, uninvited, flashing a big smile. You know this is going to take up time you do not have. If you're lucky, she notices you are busy, waits patiently, and asks her question when you're between tasks.

Hoping to create a little buzz in the senior set about Medicare prescription drug discount cards, Uncle Sam is-for the first time-helping beneficiaries do some comparison-shopping.

Uncle Sam's belated recognition that pharmacists play a critical role in managing patients' medications is why Medicare's top administrator intends to encourage seniors to use their local retail pharmacy as a point of care when the prescription drug benefit goes live in 2006.

Costs of the research, development, and approval of new veterinary pharmaceuticals continue to rapidly increase. Thus, many manufacturers of veterinary drugs are looking to agents already licensed for human use to fill their pipeline of new products.

A recent survey found that 14% of heart failure patients with prescription drug coverage chose not to fill an Rx in the prior year due to cost. Now the findings of a new survey suggest that many of the sickest patients do not tell their healthcare providers what they are doing. Cost-related medication underuse: Do patients with chronic illnesses tell their doctors? was published in the Sept. 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In today's society being tall is considered an asset, but for people with acromegaly, excessive growth is a symptom of a serious condition, oftentimes misdiagnosed. Excessive perspiration, extreme fatigue, headaches, generalized aches and pains, vision and sleep disturbances ... the widespread nature of these symptoms often leads patients to see different physicians of varying specialties. It is not until the symptoms of overgrowth and disfigurement of body parts develop that thought is given to the diagnosis of acromegaly.