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While there is a worsening doctor shortage across America, the need for physicians is particularly acute in Southern Nevada. The UNLV School of Medicine is working to address this local shortage by accepting only students who are from Nevada or who have strong ties to the area, as we know that medical students who are attached to the city from which they graduate are more likely to stay and practice there...The UNLV School of Medicine is recruiting the brightest local students and embedding them in the community from the very start of their medical education...students are required to fan out in groups of five or six into economically challenged neighborhoods where...they educate residents about how they can get better access to medical care, public transportation and healthy food. And these students will maintain these ties to the community throughout their four years of medical school by volunteering at shelters and soup kitchens. In these venues, students not only get a firsthand look at a community’s needs, they experience what it is like to provide care to those who need it most...READ MORE

, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
Jaime Rosenberg

Pharmacists rank third in Gallup’s 2018 survey of honesty and ethical standards, maintaining their consistently strong showing in the annual measure of diverse professions. Health-related professions swept the top three, with nurses ranking first and medical doctors ranking second – just one percentage point ahead of pharmacists...“We want to thank pharmacists for their trusted work as the face of neighborhood healthcare, which is reflected consistently in Gallup’s survey,” NACDS president and CEO Steve Anderson said...“Just as Americans walk into their pharmacies for access to quality care, policymakers turn to these professionals for advice on pressing issues. These issues include addressing the opioid abuse epidemic, reducing patients’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, and improving access to care through newer pharmacist-provided services.”

Medical errors of all kinds, including medication errors, are now the third highest cause of death in the United States and may be responsible for 10% of all deaths in the country, according to a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine. According to the National Academy of Medicine, preventable medication errors harm 1.5 million Americans annually and cost hospitals an additional $3.5 billion each year...“I think the problem is becoming worse because this is a complex medical system that we have,”...Strategies to prevent medication errors in recent years include a move to electronic prescribing and adding barcodes to drug products. But experts say these efforts have not eliminated the need for vigilance among pharmacists, technicians, and other healthcare professionals in the community and hospital setting. Here’s more on the actions pharmacists need to take to avoid some of the most common medication errors.

• Processing Errors
• Dosage Errors
• Care Transition Errors
• Alert Fatigue Errors
• Other Errors
• Technology on the Horizon

Camille Schrier...is a PharmD student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, and was crowned Miss Virginia 2019... After beating out 23 other contestants, Schrier will represent Virginia in the Miss America 2020 competition on September 8, 2019...What gained a lot of attention, though, was Schrier’s unique talent presentation. Instead of singing or dancing, Schrier chose to don a white lab coat and safety goggles and conduct a science experiment on stage...READ MORE

Board Members
Leo Basch, PharmD, RPh, Las Vegas
Robert Sullivan, Reno
Jason Penrod, PharmD, RPh, Reno
Kevin Desmond, RPh, Reno
Wayne Mitchell, PharmD, RPh, Carson City
Melissa Shake, PharmD, RPh, Las Vegas
Jade Jacobo, PharmD, JD, RPh, Las Vegas

Retirement of the Executive Secretary
- Larry L. Pinson, PharmD, RPh

New Reno Office -
985 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Suite 206, Reno, NV 89521.

Board Member Update

Nevada Medicaid Initiates Antibiotics Prior Authorization Criteria - Nevada Department of Health and Human Services

National Pharmacy Compliance News

Final Guidance Documents Address FDA Policies Related to DSCSA

First FDA-Approved Drug Containing Extract From Cannabis Plant to Be Placed in Schedule V

ASHP Guidelines Provide Recommendations for Preventing Patient Harm From Medication Errors

FDA’s Final Guidance Documents Address Compounding and Repackaging of Radiopharmaceuticals

Pharmacy Toolkit Encourages Conversations With Patients About Prescription Opioids

Biosimilars Added to FIP’s Policy on Pharmacists’ Right to Substitute a Medication

FDA Offers CE Course on Reducing Hypoglycemic Events in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes - Leveraging Health Literacy and Patient Preferences to Reduce Hypoglycemic Events in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

As pharmacists continually build their scope of expertise, hospital anti-microbial stewardship programs are just one more avenue for putting their experience and knowledge to work...Anna Legreid Dopp, PharmD, director of clinical guidelines and quality improvement at ASHP, says pharmacists have a responsibility to take a prominent role in antimicrobial stewardship programs by

• Promoting the opial use of antimicrobial agents;
• Reducing the transmission of infections;
• Decreasing adverse events associated with antibiotic use; and
• Participating in formulary management and educating health professionals, patients, and the public.

CGH Medical Center pharmacists say the system’s Med Card gives patients a better way to keep track of their medications – and say using the software has helped increase clinical knowledge...At CGH Medical Center in Sterling, Illinois, preventable readmissions represent a huge financial and clinical uncertainty...

• THE PROBLEM
• PROPOSAL
• MARKETPLACE
• MEETING THE CHALLENGE
• RESULTS

Pharmacists counseled more than 650 patients in the first eight months of the program at the 97-bed facility. They identified medication interventions in nearly half of all discharges. Depending on the intervention made, these changes had a major impact on patient safety and the cost of their medications...“While we haven’t been able to measure it yet, we are looking into how this program will impact our overall readmission rates and penalties, as well as HCAHPS scores,” said Tim Dunphy, director of pharmacy at CGH Medical Center...READ MORE

Wellman is a professor of pharmacy at Ferris State University College of Pharmacy, where he co-launched a dual PharmD/MBA concurrent program...Wellman believes that today a PharmD/MBA degree is essential in preparing students for leadership positions in a wide variety of industries, including retail chain pharmacy, managed care, hospitals and pharmaceutical firms...“Any of the principles that are part of business apply to being a pharmacist,” Wellman said. “We need to be a financial manager, a human resources manager and an operations manager since there are a lot of legal and regulatory components because we work in complex medication distribution systems.”...Pharmacists also have the responsibility to oversee pharmacy techs, which Wellman said means pharmacists need to understand labor laws and different aspects of managing employees equitably...the new crop of pharmacy students need more than just clinical expertise, thanks to changes in reimbursement models and the expansion by many pharmacy retail chains into health centers and clinics...Pharmacy schools are realizing that the traditional business overviews they provide students is simply not enough, and they are stepping up to the plate offering dual PharmD/MBA programs.

What I’m(Michael Hogue, president-elect of the American Pharmacists Association) hearing from these recent graduates, as well as from seasoned pharmacists, is:

• Public and private payers are looking to pay the lowest price for prescription drugs;
• The community pharmacy business model no longer supports sufficient staffing, leaving little time for patient care, and in some cases jeopardizing patient safety;
• Pharmacists, now largely employed by a corporate entity rather than through private practice, feel they have little control over their practice environment and professional judgment;
• The number of pharmacists in many markets is leading to fear among some of losing their jobs or experiencing lower wages if they do not meet productivity metrics as more technical tasks are delegated to technicians;
• Full-time employment is sometimes hard to come by as a pharmacist; and
• Young pharmacists have tremendous personal debt from college.

The American Pharmacists Association...adopted a policy on the pharmacist workplace environment and patient safety. The policies serve not only as guiding statements and principles for the profession, but are frequently referenced when key policy and legal decisions are at play. In addition...APhA board of trustees has incorporated pharmacist well-being initiatives as core to our strategic plan. Among other efforts, we are building tangible resources to assist individual pharmacists with practice challenges, professional satisfaction, recognition and personal well-being...APhA is working with other professional organizations and employers to seek legislative changes at the state and national levels that will result in recognition of pharmacists as providers of care. Coupled with changes that remove unnecessary barriers to the use of technologies and technicians, this will lead to new opportunities for the patient care we are capable of providing, allowing the business model to shift.