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The Bureau of Labor Statistics has recently released its employment and salary data for 2020. That means it’s time to update Drug Channels Institute’s annual analysis of pharmacist salaries and employment...We have found that the share of pharmacists who work at hospitals reached a new high. What’s more, average base salaries for retail pharmacists have dropped, while salaries have risen for pharmacists employed by hospitals, physician offices, and other non-retail settings...READ MORE

Lawmakers behind the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act...not only requires electronic prior authorization for MA plans, but also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create a process for faster decisions on items and services that commonly get approved...While the bill only applies to MA plans, lawmakers hope to eventually tackle more types of insurance such as commercial plans...READ MORE

A December 2020 opinion issued by Washington Attorney General...affirmed pharmacists’ standard of practice under collaborative drug therapy agreements (CDTAs)...“[The opinion] clearly states that pharmacists working under CDTAs can identify and treat illness. This is reassuring news to practitioners who have developed practices that care for patients with these agreements,”...The opinion was a response to questions from the Washington State Medical Commission about whether pharmacists can diagnose patients pursuant to CDTAs—and if that constitutes unauthorized practice of medicine—and whether prescribers can enter CDTAs permitting pharmacists to diagnose patients...READ MORE

Preventing medication errors is an essential component of caring for patients and must be a core mission of every pharmacy. For medication error–prevention efforts to be effective, they must be a priority...The information in the tables of this review summarizes many of the significant error-prevention strategies recommended in the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! Acute Care newsletter from January through December 2020...READ MORE

Table 1. Safety Issues Related to Labeling, Packaging, and Nomenclature
Auxiliary label obscures critical reconstitution information on label of REVATIO (sildenafil; Pfizer) oral suspension carton

Table 2. Safety Issues Associated With Order Communication and Documentation
Confusion between LYUMJEV and HUMALOG (both insulin lispro by Lilly), which have different onsets of action

Table 3. Problems Involving Drug Information, Patient Information, Patient Education, and Staff Education
Administer adenosine rapidly for cardioversion

Table 4. Safety Issues Related to Medical Devices and Equipment
Bypassing soft low-dose alerts for subtherapeutic heparin infusions

Table 5. Other Discussion Items
Differences between human error, at-risk behavior, and reckless behavior

Table 6. ISMP’s Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals
FDA removes syringe administration from vinCRIStine labeling

In reality, nearly half (44%) of hospital pharmacists experienced a diversion event within the past 12 months, which is up from 37% in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this “hidden epidemic,” a multi-faceted challenge which poses serious risks to patients, clinicians and healthcare systems...Here are 5 questions frequently asked by health systems seeking to accelerate and improve their efforts to detect and mitigate drug diversion incidents...READ MORE

1. What are the biggest challenges in identifying drug diversion?
2. How have responsibilities for addressing and resolving drug diversion issues evolved?
3. What offers the biggest opportunity to improve diversion identification?
4. When selecting automated systems and software, which capabilities are most critical?
5. How do you justify the cost of technology in a difficult economic environment?

Hospitals and health system pharmacists are urging the Biden administration to review insurer "white bagging" policies...Payers use white bagging to dispense drugs to hospitals, requiring these medications come from select network specialty pharmacies. AHA and ASHP said in the letter that doing so circumvents hospital supply chain protocols aimed at patient safety..."White bagging has surged in frequency over the past decade, creating what amounts to a shadow inventory that hospitals and health systems do not legally own and which exists largely outside of the DSCSA’s track and trace requirements,"...READ MORE

The uncertainty of coronavirus disease 2019 caused anticipatory purchasing of medications around the world, driving demand to an unprecedented high. Meanwhile, drug factories shut down in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the drug-supply chain was disrupted, and drug shortages resulted. In the face of these drug shortages, pharmacy personnel responded by initiating local policy changes, implementing detailed antibiotic stewardship, and enacting quantity limits for in-demand medications...READ MORE

Eli Lilly is asking a federal court to stop the federal government from imposing any penalties over its decision to restrict sales of 340B-discounted products to contract pharmacies...The request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order...comes less than a week after the Health Resources and Services Administration wrote to Lilly and five other drug companies over the contract pharmacy restrictions...The injunction and order show that drug companies appear likely to fight HRSA’s order to immediately offer 340B-discounted drugs to contract pharmacies, which are third-party entities that dispense drugs on behalf of the 340B covered entities...READ MORE

A new legislation recently passed by the Michigan’s House of Representatives would require reforms to many pharmacy benefit manager reimbursement practices in the state...The provisions listed in HB 4348 would prohibit PBMs from reimbursing pharmacies affiliated with the PBM more than non-affiliate pharmacies; prohibit patient steering to PBM-owned pharmacies; prohibit retroactive clawbacks; require reimbursement be based on the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost; and establish fair audit procedures for community pharmacies...READ MORE

Nearly 82% of hospitals surveyed by the Joint Commission in 2019 were noncompliant with at least one Medication Management chapter item. Still, experts say they are hopeful that recent revisions will help those hospitals meet the accreditor’s expectations...Topping the list of noncompliance in 2019 was the medication administration standard, which 49% of hospitals failed to adhere to, Mansur noted. “Surveyors have been finding medications being administered for an indication when another medication was specified, or an ordered medication given for a different indication, and often this is done without a documented explanation,” she said. “Surveyors will also often see that administration of medication, particularly titration medication, is performed differently than is directed by the order.”...READ MORE