PFC CEO Meets with Leadership of SafeMedicines.org

This week, Pharmacy Foundation CEO Michael Negrete met with the Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, which is coalition of organizations working to protect patients from counterfeit medications.  The Partnership provides a variety of free materials that show pharmacists, consumers and others how to decrease their risk of receiving fake medicines.  The World Health Organization estimates that as much as 10 percent of the medicines sold worldwide are counterfeit.  This, combined with our increasingly global economy, makes it important for pharmacists to be aware of the dangers of counterfeit drugs and how they can recognize and prevent them from reaching patients.  A great place for pharmacists to start learning about this issue is from the safemedicines.org Pharmacist LEADER’s Guide.

Cardinal Health Foundation Awards $1 Million to Fund Patient Safety Initiatives

The Cardinal Health Foundation has awarded a total of $1 million in grant funding for new and innovative programs to improve patient safety at 35 hospitals, health systems and community health clinics across the country. Grants of up to $35,000 per facility will provide funding for programs that implement creative and replicable methods to improve the quality of patient care.  Among those receiving grants were St. Joseph Health System (SJHC) in Eureka California, and the UCSF MedicalCenter.  SJHC received their grant for a “Care Transition Medication Safety and Reconciliation Project,”  and UCSF’s grant was for a project entitled “Spreading Successful Innovation: Improving Medication Administration Accuracy.” 

Pharmacists' Role In Medication Management Featured In NQF Webinar

The webinar, Practices for Medication Safety, featured healthcare experts who offered an overview of implementation strategies for the NQF's 2009 National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Safe Practices for Better Healthcare that are related to medication management, medication reconciliation and pharmacist leadership structures and systems. The webinar is part of a year-long series addressing specific safe practices to guide the healthcare industry in more rapid adoption of safety measures. More information about the series is available online.

PFC CEO & CA Dept of Managed Health Care Discuss Possible “Asheville Project”

Yesterday, Michael Negrete met with the DMHC staff person in charge of its “Right Care Initiative”.  The purpose of the initiative is to work with California Health Plans, Medical Groups, The National Committee of Quality Assurance, academia, clinical quality experts, and associated businesses to measurably improve clinical outcomes through enhancing the practice of evidence-based medicine in a collaborative, expert-based, public-private, multi-year effort.  One of the initiative’s areas of focus is related to diabetes care.  After a search of national best practices, the Asheville Project was identified as a promising model which DMHC staff is researching to determine whether a large-scale pilot project should be considered in CA.  Look for PFC to provide updates about this effort as information becomes available.

Pharmacy OneSource Announces Free Webinar on Look-Alike Drug Name Medication Errors

During this complimentary webinar, Michael Grissinger of ISMP will identify factors that contribute to drug name similarity and confusion, recognize the areas in the medication-use process where drug names could be confused, and discuss strategies to prevent errors associated with look-alike drug names. The webinar will take place on June 24 from 9:00-10:00am.  Registration is currently available online.

Patients 'victims of drug mistakes'
Australia's first comprehensive review of non-hospital medication errors shows that this type of medical mistake is extremely common. The country's National Prescribing Service stated it conducted the review because although medication errors were known to be common, most of the attention and previous research has focused on errors that occur in the hospital setting.  Citing poor communication as the most common contributing factor, the report states that  many interventions do not have a significant impact on patient outcomes except for those that take a comprehensive approach to managing specific disease states (interventions including medication reviews, home visits and/or telephone follow ups; states such as heart failure).

PFC CEO Advises OPA on Health Literacy Project

The inability of many consumers to access, read, understand and use information related to their health benefits creates significant inefficiencies for everyone in our healthcare system.  To help address this issue, the CA Office of the Patient Advocate has initiated a project to identify changes health plans can make to help consumers with limited health literacy navigate the health system more efficiently. This week, PFC CEO Michael Negrete attended a meeting of the project’s advisory committee and advocated for efforts to improve people’s understanding and use of their pharmacy benefit. Problems related to coverage issues and authorizations were seen by many as sources of significant inefficiencies. Over the next several weeks, the OPA will review the research collected to date and determine the project’s areas of focus.

Woman Sues RPh for Child Support – Cites Inadequate Counseling

We’ve all heard the “urban pharmacy legend” about the woman who sued her pharmacist for child support because “he omitted to tell her that she should NOT eat her contraceptive jelly on her toast.”  While this story may not be true, it is a dramatic example of how limited health literacy can impact a person’s care.  At a recent meeting (see previous blurb),

PFC CEO Michael Negrete was asked to provide some dramatic examples of how limited health literacy can negatively impact a person’s life.  These examples were requested by producers of television medical dramas (i.e. Gray’s Anatomy) for use in the development of future story lines.  If you have a dramatic example of how a patient’s inability to access, read, understand and use important pharmacy-related information impacted their life, please email it to mnegrete@pharmacyfoundation.org by next Wednesday.

InjuryBoard.com: Medication Errors A Top Reason for MD Malpractice Suits

Medication errors or negligence in prescribing medications may be the cause of 225,000 deaths per year. Lack of patient education about the medications prescribed is a component of negligent drug treatment. Prescription drug malpractice claims can also result from a doctor's poor handwriting on the prescription order and misinterpretation by a pharmacist.  Other problems cited as top causes of MD malpractice suits included failure to consult in a timely manner, surgical errors, and cancer misdiagnosis.