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The state is accusing the University of Washington Medical Center of not keeping critical pharmacy areas clean enough…Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission says this could affect public health, safety and welfare…"...daily cleaning of sterile compounding areas either had not occurred ... or were not documented."…It also found that, "multiple facility controls had rust, glue and dirt visibly present." And that there was "an open window to the area, high traffic in the area, and personnel who were not properly garbed."… both the director and manager of the Pharmacy - as well as the Pharmacy itself could face suspension or revocation of their licenses.

Walgreens is providing up to $15 million worth of free flu shot vouchers through its collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, in an effort to improve immunization rates among uninsured and underinsured…the voucher initiative has been instrumental in helping to protect more people from the flu each season,… providing access to flu shots at no cost for those who are eligible, we can make a significant impact by protecting more people throughout the flu season…

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…

Jessica Kerr, PharmD, CDE, and assistant department chair at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville discusses potential barriers to inhaled insulin, like Afrezza.

PharmTalk is a special production from the University of Arizona, College of Pharmacy that features Keith and Kevin Boesen.

More and more, student pharmacists, student nurses, student physicians and others learn together about the best ways to make patients' lives better.

At least 15 hospitals across the country have installed, or are considering installing, copper components on "high-touch" surfaces easily contaminated with microbes — faucet handles on sinks, cabinet pulls, toilet levers, call buttons and IV poles…We’ve known for a long time that copper and other metals are effective in killing microbes,… Many experts have concluded that traditional methods for reducing hospital-acquired infections, such as hand washing, aren’t enough, because people don’t always do what they are supposed to do and many pathogens can survive for long periods on surfaces. That’s why hospitals are experimenting with other ways to destroy them…

Attention, proles! ...Health Resources and Services Administration has released its long-awaited Omnibus Guidance for the 340B Drug Pricing Program…guidance brings some much-needed clarity to the definition of an eligible patient...duplicate discounts…diversion…covered entities audit and monitor contract pharmacies…Unfortunately, HRSA has granted itself intrusive oversight for what it calls "limited distribution plans." Under the guise of auditing manufacturer compliance,…is asserting novel and impractical review and approval authority over manufacturers' channel strategies… every manufacturer is expected to have its channel strategies reviewed and then published…Watch out!

Renown Health announced $63.7 million has been committed to capital projects in the year ahead. This marks the largest single-year investment by the organization since…in 2008…projects will range from purchasing new technology for leading-edge cancer care to building brand new facilities in growing parts of our community and renovations to improve patient safety, care and comfort.

• $7.5 million commitment toward building and technology for a newly expanded radiation treatment facility in Renown’s Institute for Cancer…with new Varian radiation technologies
• $1.8 million for a 3-D mammography tomosynthesis machine
• $3 million to upgrade 122 prescription dispensing cabinets at our three acute care hospitals and Surgical Arts facility
• $8 million to build a new comprehensive patient care facility offering a number of services including imaging, therapy, primary care, urgent care and lab services…The location and details of the new facility will be announced at a later date

Kimberly Henderson, MD, JD, medical director for the Health Systems Alliance at CVS Health and regional medical director for MinuteClinic, discusses the biggest roadblocks to managing COPD and how pharmacists can help overcome those challenges.

Because current health care practice focuses on diagnosing and prescribing, the need to taper, reduce, or discontinue inappropriate medication therapy receives relatively little attention. Few clinical guidelines cover drug deprescribing, and this lack of evidence-based direction contributes to prescribers’ hesitancy or reluctance to touch treatment regimens that may have originated from a different practice setting. But failure to deprescribe medications that are contributing to adverse side effects can have serious consequences,...