Community Practice

A federal report credits Florida’s crackdown on pill mills and doctor shoppers with reducing deaths from prescription-drug overdoses by nearly one quarter.

A bill that would authorize California pharmacists to dispense naloxone hydrochloride, a drug used to reverse opiate overdoses, has cleared several legislative hurdles.

A panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended healthy children between the ages of 2 and 8 receive nasal spray flu vaccines instead of flu shots.

Kim Ankenbruck has a knack for expressing what many of her fellow pharmacists are thinking. Here, she tackles the question of how to practice integrity in an environment designed to punish the attempt.

If it’s a positive return on investment you seek, look no further than your local free medical clinic.

The California State Supreme Court recently upheld a ruling that allows healthcare plans serving the poor to ignore what it costs pharmacies to obtain drugs when establishing Medi-Cal reimbursement rates.

A new law that will allow pharmacists in Kansas to create collaborative agreements with physicians will take effect in July.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has signed an emergency order allowing pharmacists to administer the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to people 18 years or older.

Penn State Hershey Health System has joined the Rite Aid Health Alliance, which provides support to individuals with chronic and poly-chronic health conditions.

Electronic prescribing was supposed to be the savior of pharmacy. Things haven’t quite worked out that way.

Costly treatments are expected to drive unprecedented growth in U.S. drug spending over the next two years. Some analysts say that’s not good news for consumers or most pharmacists.

Patients must be taught what their meds mean and why they're taking them. That's a job for the pharmacist.

A direct response to the devastating fungal meningitis outbreak linked to NECC, the Drug Quality and Security Act gives FDA needed regulatory power to oversee compounders.

Pharmacies that want to keep their 340B Medicaid contracts had better police themselves for compliance irregularities and prepare for increased audits and oversight.

Approximately 7.8% of adults and 10% of children in the U.S. are afflicted with hay fever symptoms. Pharmacists are able to offer a number of over-the-counter solutions to improve patients' quality of life.

In May, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule for 2015 Part D prescription drug benefit programs, requiring increased price transparency for pharmacies by 2016.

In a study of patients at high risk for stroke, patients without periprocedural warfarin who were bridged with low-molecular weight heparin showed a >10-fold increased odds of ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the 48 hours after ablation for atrial fibrillation, compared with those on uninterrupted warfarin.

FDA approved eslicarbazepine acetate on November 8, 2013 as an adjunctive treatment of partial-onset seizures in adults.

Provider status, access to patient health information, more inclusion on the healthcare team, and recognition as patient-care professionals - progress in the pharmacy profession is taking place. Will you take the ball and run with it?

Pharmacists need to believe in the basic skills that were once taught. We need to practice pharmacy in the traditional sense.

A pharmacist must have a valid license issued by the board of the state in which he wishes to practice. New pharmacy graduates need to investigate individual state pharmacy board requirements.

Some healthcare professionals have to make “professional discretion” decisions based on the patient’s subjective opinion. Pharmacists need to be objective about subjective pain that patients express.

The creation of patient-specific compounds is one of the most constructive ways pharmacists can help provide meaningful pain management and address concerns with opiate use.

Every time pharmacists consult a patient about a prescription they need to address the safety of its use and proper disposal.

E-prescribing was supposed to reduce prescription errors by eliminating the problem of illegible Rxs. The result? Nowadays prescriptions are easier to read - and just as full of errors.