Talking Pill Bottles Help Blind Sacramento Man Take Right Meds
Sacbee.com - March 18, 2010
Advances in the pharmacy field have led to talking pill bottles. Charles Dickens, a Sacramento man born blind, finds the new technology to be quite helpful after his previous method of using rubber bands was not as fool proof as he once thought. full story >>

Free “SafeMedService” During Patient Safety Awareness Week
March 5, 2010
In an effort to help patients and their families become better informed and more involved in their health care, March 7-14 has been declared National Patient Safety Awareness week.  The Pharmacy Foundation of California is participating in this observance by promoting its online “SafeMedService” which allows patients and family caregivers to obtain free, personalized medication risk reports. 

KTLA: CPhA President Eric Gupta On Rx Expiration Dates
March 5, 2010
Eric was interviewed by KTLA in LA for a news story on “the meaning of expiration dates.”  In his interview, Dr. Gupta stated that once medications are opened, environmental elements make their potency beyond the listed expiration questionable at best.  Taking an expired medication simply isn’t worth the risk when it is prescribed for a critical illness.

Coalition wants pharmacists to play role in drug safety programs
March 5, 2010
Seventeen organizations and pharmacy chains, including the National Community Pharmacists Association, the American Pharmacists Association, Bartell Drugs, and Shopko, hope the FDA will let pharmacists have a role in ensuring that patients use medication safely and effectively. “Studies have shown that community pharmacists providing face-to-face patient interactions may have a greater impact on patient behavior compared to other methods of service delivery" 

Kapidex to Change Name in U.S. to Avoid Dispensing Errors

After receiving reports of dispensing errors between Kapidex and the products Casodex® (bicalutamide) and Kadian® (morphine sulfate extended-release), Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., in coordination with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), determined that, in the interest of patient safety, a name change would be the best way to minimize future medication errors with Kapidex. Kapidex will be marketed in the United States under the new product trade name DEXILANT™.  While it is important for drug companies, doctors, and pharmacies to minimize the risk of medication errors, it is also important for patients to double-check their medications. Check the labels to verify the name of the medication is correct and the directions are the same. Look at the medication. Do your pills look different than normal? If they do, call your pharmacy. And whenever your doctor prescribes a new medication, ask the name of the medication, what it is used for, how often you need to take it (3 times a day could mean every 8 hours or it could mean at only at mealtimes), how it should be stored, the possible side effects, if there could be any negative interactions with other medication you are taking (always keep a list of your medication with you, and include any over-the-counter or herbal remedies and dietary supplements, you use routinely), and any foods you should avoid. For more information, you can read the FDA announcement.

Court Upholds ~$26 Million Judgment For Pharmacy Error

In case you missed it, ABC World News reported earlier this week that a Florida court has upheld an almost $26 million dollar judgment against a national pharmacy chain for a dispensing error resulting in a patient’s debilitating stroke. To be clear, a mistake is like this is always extremely regrettable and never excusable.  However, it is unfortunate to see that all the attention given to pharmacy on the issue of medication errors continues to focus solely on the rare mistakes that pharmacists make.  This is because in reality, dispensing errors are really only a very small part of the overall medication errors problem.  Much bigger issues are errors related to medication prescribing, use, and monitoring – problems for which pharmacists are the solution, NOT the cause.  Anyone who has worked in a community pharmacy knows that pharmacists find and fix medication errors dozens of times each shift. Despite this fact however, news stories like the one aired by ABC demonstrate that there are even more medication errors that need to be caught.  Given the Pharmacy Foundation of California’s goal of preventing medication errors, we are very interested in hearing from community pharmacists about the kinds of challenges they encounter on a daily basis which keep them from helping even more patients than they already do.  If you are a community pharmacist, please click here and take just a few minutes to tell us what you think could be done to better enable you to help Keep Cures from Becoming Killers.