Community Practice

Categories to watch in this year's diverse drug pipeline include oral agents to treat multiple sclerosis and a host of new diabetes, cardiovascular, and pain-management products.

A cluster-randomized controlled clinical trial carried out in six community-based family medicines has demonstrated that healthcare teams that included pharmacists helped improve patients' blood-pressure management.

The House Small Business Committee has passed the Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act, which could provide up to $10 million in loans to help pharmacies implement HIT. The act is now slated for vote by the full House of Representatives.

One man's fantasy of the ultimate pharmacy leads him down memory lane.

Doctors don't do it. Attorneys don't do it. Physical therapists, insurance agents, title agents, audiologist, and nurse practitioners don't do it. Who came up with the fishbowl model of retail pharmacy anyway?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law on February 17, included the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which expands covered-entity and business-associate requirements established by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

A survey of new Rx, new indications, and new OTC

Community Health Care, a center in Bridgeton, New Jersey, serving 43,000 uninsured and underinsured patients at 18 sites across the state, is teaming up with SunRx to expand its pharmacy services to include more 340B program patients.

RxPatrol, an information clearinghouse operated by Purdue Pharma, has teamed up with the National Community Pharmacists Association to offer a 10-minute training video on crime-prevention measures for pharmacy staff.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center has announced results of a clinical trial comparing alemtuzumab and antithymocyte globulin, agents used in induction before renal and pancreatic transplants.

Respondents to this year's business outlook survey are generally upbeat about the business their pharmacies are doing and their prospects for the coming year.

Pharmacists speak out about stress-busting, generics, business costs, and mail-order pharmacy

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Office of the Inspector General of the federal Department of Health and Human Services are going after perpetrators of medical identity theft as part of a broader effort to reform healthcare.

The retail pharmacist who runs a pharmacy inside a big-box store can improve departmental operations by understanding the point of view of the retail store manager. Although pharmacist and manager have different focuses and priorities, they can work together to improve delivery of services when they understand each other's needs.

Retail pharmacy managers are discovering that many third-party administrators do not agree that their inventory information approval systems meet compliance requirements set by the Internal Revenue Service for customers' use of flexible spending accounts.

More than 23 million Americans, close to 8 percent of the population, have diabetes. For drugstores, the medical nature of their retail business makes them the outlet of choice for shoppers purchasing diabetes products. Retail pharmacists may choose to maximize patient awareness by placing their diabetes-care display and educational literature near the pharmacy counter.

Nearly a third of all Americans have trouble getting a good night's sleep. Although customers seeking OTC help this year will have to rely on the old stand-by, antihistamines, a few new products are available.

Confronted with these three common scenarios in your daily practice of pharmacy, what would you do?

All hospital and health systems must decide whether to use multiple-dose vials or single-dose vials of drugs, a decision that usually rests on two considerations: Cost reduction and patient safety. The pros and cons of the two systems lead to an inescapable conclusion.

Working with healthcare professionals and the public, the FDA is developing new guidelines for prevention of medication misuse and abuse and other medication errors linked to preventable harm.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) may recommend that healthcare workers, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, be transferred from positions where they handle hazardous drugs if the workers are trying to conceive, are pregnant, and/or breastfeeding.

In the prescription drug market, discriminatory pricing is common for independent community pharmacies and their patients. This fall, a Federal District Court in New York will consider a critical case: Drug Mart Pharmacy Corp. et a. v. American Home Products Corp. et al. The outcome of the case may determine whether discriminatory pricing techniques are illegal.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Express Scripts Inc., and The St. Louis College of Pharmacy are giving 35 high school students their first look at pharmacy careers in the BESt Summer Pharmacy Institute program.

Schnucks Markets plans to get customers into its pharmacy departments with the addition of EyeSite vision-screening kiosks. Thirty kiosks were recently added to its grocery stores in the St. Louis area.

More than 60 million Americans experience heartburn at least once a month, and at least 25 million suffer on a daily basis. A Nielson study reported early in 2009 announced that 94 percent of patients are satisfied with their OTC remedies. The study estimated that OTC medications annually save patients an average total of $174 each in office visits and medication costs. Because of fewer patient visits top physicians, the study attributes $757 million in annual savings to the U.S. healthcare system.