American Health Care Association

American Association of Retired Persons American Health Care Association American Hospital Association American Medical Association American Nurses Association American Pharmaceutical Association American Society of Health-System Pharmaeists American Society for Healthcare Risk Management Department of Veterans Affairs Food and Drug Administration Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association Institute for Safe Medication Practices... 

The American Health Care Association, which represents for-profit, investor-owned, and nonprofit nursing homes, says that facilities must work closely with doctors to ensure that medications prescribed are meeting the individual needs of each patient ... 

American Health Care Association (AHCA) (nursing homes/long-term care)... 

Sterilisation of Health Care Products—Chemical Indicators, Part 1 General Requirements, AAMI 1114001-D, 1995-11-30, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instmmentation, Arlington, Va., 1995, proposed new American National Standard. 

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine A.CQEM) is an association of physicians and other health care providers specializing in the field of occupational and environmental medicine. Contact ACOEM, 55 West Seegers Road, Arlington Heights, IE 60005 Phone 847-818-1800 FAX 847-818-9266. 

Dustan H, Francis C, Allen H, et al. Principles of access to health care. Access to Health Care Task Force, American Heart Association. Circulation 1993 87 657-8. 

Drug abuse costs American society approximately 140 billion in providing treatment and prevention services, lost earnings or productivity at work, other health care costs, costs associated with crime, and social welfare. 

Barker KN, Flynn EA, Pepper GA, Bates DW, Mikeal RL (2002) Medication errors observed in 36 health care facilities. Arch Intern Med 162 1897-1903 Bates DW, Boyle DL, Vander Vliet MB, Schneider J, Leape L (1995) Relationship between medication errors and adverse drug events. J Gen Intern Med 10 199-205 Cohen MR (ed) (2006) Medication errors. American Pharmaceutical Association, Washington, DC... 

Steven H. Miles is Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. He served as President of the American Association of Bioethics and was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. He served on President Clinton s Bioethics Working Group on Health Care Reform. 

The Joint Commission is a nonprofit organization founded in 1951 by the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons (O Malley, 1997). The Joint Commission was established to continuously improve the safety and quality of health care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations ... 

Professional pharmacy and medical organizations [e.g., the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the National Community Pharmcists Association (NCPA), and the American Medical Association (AMA)] and health care organizations [e.g., the American Diabetes Association (ADA) or the American Heart Association (AHA)] also provide valuable information about many health conditions and value-added services. This information is important not only in the development of a service but also in justifying the need for a service with consumers and administrators. These organizations also provide treatment guidelines and additional resources that can be used when developing an operations plan for a service (see Chapter 25). 

According a report published by the American Medical Association Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy, more than 40 percent of patients with chronic illnesses are functionally illiterate, and almost a quarter of all adult Americans read at or below a fifth grade level. Unfortunately, medical information leaflets typically are written at or above a tenth grade reading level. It is estimated that low health literacy skills have increased our annual health care expenditures by 73 billion. Further contributing to the dilemma is the fact that an estimated three-quarters of patients throw out the medication leaflet stapled to the prescription bag without reading it, and only one-half of all patients take their medications as directed (AMA, 1999). 

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