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Hospital pharmacists are aware that they have too many orders to fill on a daily basis – in addition to numerous other job functions, including working with insurers and counseling patients. And now, a new study verifies that the more orders pharmacists fill, the more likely it is for errors to occur… at a large tertiary care medical center… than 1.9 million medication orders that were handled by 50 pharmacists…92 medication error events had occurred during order verification…There was also a lower error rate seen for pharmacists who had a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, compared with those who had a Bachelor of Science degree; however, those results were not statistically significant…

DEA…announces the sentencing of Edward Jack Sayegh, M.D. to four years in prison, after the…doctor pleaded guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy, fraud, and multiple drug diversion charges following a long-term investigation into his medical practice, Arizona Family Medicine… Sayegh was personally abusing narcotics, sold prescriptions to a select group of patients and billing insurances for services never rendered.

Clark County's only medical marijuana dispensary was forced to close its doors for nearly a week after it ran out of supplies due to widespread failures in the safety tests performed on growers' crops…Euphoria Wellness plans to reopen Tuesday morning, having closed last week on Wednesday afternoon,… Any marijuana sold in Nevada must first be tested and approved by a state-licensed laboratory. The marijuana must meet strict standards approved by the state, including what amounts to a zero-tolerance rule for pesticides.

People between the ages of 50 and 59 years at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke should take daily low-dose aspirin,…In addition to preventing heart attacks and strokes,…may reduce their risk of colon cancer if they take aspirin for at least 10 years, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force,...Under the Affordable Care Act, the task force's recommendations are used to help set health insurance reimbursement policies.

Pharmacists can adapt to the evolution of their industry by understanding treatment guidelines, learning about local physician practices, and improving patient adherence,...these actions contribute to quality healthcare...This matters to pharmacists because they’re increasingly facing pressure to join preferred networks that link them to the success or failure of health plans… Medicare Star Ratings… help…patients choose which plan to enroll in… Plans with low Star Ratings…risk losing their CMS contract...

Statins are tried-and-true moneymakers, but they also come with their own set of safety concerns…FDA postmarketing safety reports… on side effects for companies producing statin drugs…found that Merck's Zocor, Mevacor and Vytorin were associated with more muscle-related side effects than other drugs in the class…For example, Zocor had 4275 reports of myalgia, 632 reports of myopathy, and 3552 cases of rhabdomyolysis..

On August 7, 2014, Federal District Court …blocked the Food and Drug Administration from enforcing restrictions on the marketing and promotion of off-label use of the drug icosapent ethyl (Vascepa),..If the case heralds the future of jurisprudence, responsibility for the oversight of the truthfulness of pharmaceutical promotions may shift from the nation’s leading science-based regulatory agency, the FDA, to the courts. If it does, the market for medications in the 21st century may revert to a time of more claims and less evidence to guide clinical care… Judges should refrain from using the First Amendment to undermine core regulatory functions.

FDA has approved aspirin extended-release capsules (Durlaza)for the prevention of stroke and acute cardiac events…is the first, and only 24-hour, extended-release aspirin capsule…allows prolonged absorption and sustained platelet exposure to aspirin…indicated to reduce the risk of death and myocardial infarction in patient with chronic coronary artery disease,...

Young men have a new opportunity to receive reproductive health services from the Southern Nevada Health District…Men's Health Center inside the East Las Vegas Public Health Center at 560 N. Nellis Blvd. opens Tuesday.. Services include a basic health assessment, and nursing staff will provide counseling and education regarding family planning, reproductive health, risk factors for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and safe sexual practices.

The required Oct. 1 conversion to the ICD-10 coding system will be worth the costs and headaches, supporters say….With up to seven alphanumeric characters in ICD-10 compared with a maximum of four numeric digits in ICD-9, there will be lots more room for the codes to accommodate new medical conditions and procedures. With ICD-9, "we've just run out of space," … Advocates also say ICD-10 will allow providers to keep better track of patient care and aggregate data to perform quality-improvement analysis. It also should give hospital and physician leaders sharper tools for analyzing the impact of new procedures and managing population health. They'll be better able to track individual pracces and identify inappropriate practice variation.