Pharmacist recent information

The safety of the medication system is the primary concern of every hospital pharmacist. Recently published reports of the incidence, causes, and cost of injury resulting from medication errors have led many hospitals to critically evaluate their quality assurance systems (Bates et al., 1996, 1997 Classen et al., 1997 Kohn, Corrigan, and Donaldson, 1999 Leape et al., 1991, 1995 Poon et al., 2006 Stelfox, et al., 2006). Written incident reports were once the standard for gathering information about medication misadventures. This method is now believed to lack sufficient completeness and reliability for identifying weaknesses in a medication system (Classen et al., 1991 Cullen et al., 1995 Leape, 1994, 2002 Leape et al., 1995). 

At a recent continuing-education seminar, Dr. Hamilton and her staff pharmacists learned of the potential for a significant interaction between the two medications in question. She was puzzled as to why one of the pharmacists would have told a physician that there are no drug interaction problems with the new drug. Dr. Hamilton and the staff pharmacists are aware that the hospital information technology department has not yet updated the pharmacy department computer system to include this interaction. As she concludes her conversation with Dr. Brown, she promises to find out what happened and take corrective action. 

Unlike the United States, many countries further divide non-prescription medications into different subclasses. Table 8 contains information regarding OTC products around the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, non-prescription medications known as P medicines may only be sold in registered pharmacies under the supervision of a registered pharmacist while other non-prescription medications, known as the general sale list medicines, may be sold at all other retail outlets. There has been a push in recent years to consider a third class of medications sold only under the supervision of the pharmacist in the United States. Many consumers and healthcare providers favor this move with more and more products available as OTCs. However, limiting the access to these products, especially in rural areas, has kept this issue still under debate. 

Provides concise information on the safe and effective use of medicines, medical devices, and methods of diagnosis and treatment. Also provides notifications of recently approved new and changed medicines and amendments to the Interchangeable Multi-source Medicines list. Provided free to prescribers and pharmacists, and available on subscription. Published three to four times a year by Medsafe, Ministry of Health, Level 18, Grand Plimmer Tower, 2-6 Gilmer Terrace, PO Box 5013, Wellington, New Zealand. Copies of all articles are included on the Medsafe web site. 

The pharmacy profession can offer considerable expertise to the field of HSR. Furthermore, recent changes in the healthcare system mandate that, as a profession, pharmacy must broaden its focus from individual clinical interventions to include population and system-level interventions and evaluations. The techniques used in HSR provide vital tools for pharmacy to influence health policy and, ultimately, delivery of care. Furthermore, because of their unique skills and perspectives, pharmacists can offer a distinctive knowledge base that can inform HSR. 

Advances in technology can facilitate the generation and transfer of patient documentation. As more pharmacies use the Internet as a means of communication, information can be transferred quickly and accurately over greater distances. Handheld computers and specialty software allow health care practitioners to document information in an electronic format that can be transformed immediately for rapid transfer to others. Reports in the literature have described methods to assess pharmacist interventions related to medication errors, the use of computer-based systems, and recently, the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in specific patient care areas. Many of these documentation systems tend to be individualized apphcations in which the transfer of data to other providers is not possible or quite limited. Often these systems focus on the generation of reports for workload analysis or accreditation purposes. 

For many traditionally trained physicians, informal learning about alternative medicines is a sign of the times. This lack of formal professional training in the area of herbal remedies was highlighted in a recent University of Mississippi study, which revealed that 60% of the retail pharmacists interviewed learned about herbal medicines from their patients, and only 25% had learned about them during their professional schooling (Kroll,... 

Because nearly 70% of patients who use alternative therapies do not inform their health-care providers about these products, pharmacists and other health-care professionals should question all patients about their use of alternative therapies. Health-care professionals should remain vigilant for potential interactions between alternative therapies and prescription medications, especially medications with a narrow therapeutic index, and should report suspected interactions to the FDA MedWatch program. The FDA recently established the Special Nutritionals Adverse Event Monitoring System, a searchable database including information about... 

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