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Hortense Jones of Durham...2015 Pharmacy Technician of the Year…Jones works at Durham’s Lincoln Community Health Center as the pharmacy technician supervisor, where she oversees a team of 11 pharmacy technicians…"I am truly humbled by this honor, but this is about our pharmacy team more than me," Jones said. "My leadership philosophy is to find the strengths of each employee and build an essential role for them on the team that matches their assets. As a result, they become fully engaged in advancing patient safety."

NHS 111 and GP out-of-hours services are to be brought much closer together under a fundamental redesign of urgent care delivery throughout the National Health Service…NHS England said the new "front door" will offer patients simpler and better access to urgent care through a novel 24/7 clinical assessment, advice and treatment service via the 111 number, streamlining provision around the country… reshaping urgent care stem from NHS England’s ongoing Urgent and Emergency Care Review, and come as local health services are responding to the highest ever number of ambulance calls, A&E attendances and emergency admissions in NHS history, with even more demand expected through the coming winter months…Last winter several hospitals in England were forced to declare a ‘major incident’ and close their doors as they struggled to cope with the influx of patients, and A&E waiting times were the worst in a decade, underscoring the need for a new system.

Up to a half of infections after surgery and over a quarter of infections after chemotherapy are caused by organisms already resistant to standard antibiotics in the US… Researchers have reported the strongest evidence yet that rising antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or cancer chemotherapy… A 30% reduction in the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis could result in 120,000 additional infections and 6,300 infection-related deaths every year… Prophylactic antibiotics are used routinely in surgery, organ transplantation and cancer chemotherapy to prevent infections…Increasing antibiotic resistance threatens the safety of these procedures and could result in increased rates of morbidity, amputation or death.

Brian Haug, President of Pharmacy and Managed Markets, Pharmacy Times (PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

Pharmacy education is a greatly debated topic. Since Albert Benjamin Prescott revolutionized our practice in the early 19th century with the abandonment of the apprenticeship model in favor of didactic learning, the process of developing pharmacists has undergone many changes.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients could spend less time in the hospital if their doctors utilize a checklist of steps called order sets, according to findings published in the Canadian Respiratory Journal…Researchers from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto…examined the effects of order sets on hospital stay…Using order sets to manage worsening COPD can lead to better medical care and better results for patients…By providing doctors with the best, evidence based information at the point in time when they are deciding on medications and tests for their patients, we can improve doctors' adherence to best practices…Our next step is to advocate for these order sets to be implemented across the healthcare system, to ensure that these patients receive best evidence based and standardized care..

Ron Lanton – Government Affairs Strategist for the Pharmacy Podcast Show interviews Phil LaFoy with Blount Specialty Pharmacy.

Andi Lane Clark, PharmD, Director of Clinical Field Services at Rite Aid, forecasts several different innovative solutions that are poised to drive better medication adherence over the next 2-3 years.

Many pharmacists are looking to national certification as a standard by which to accurately discern a pharmacy technician’s knowledge…Technician certification is now seen as so important that earning it has become a mandatory or optional licensure requirement in 29 states…Regardless of state requirements, certification is still enormously beneficial…Employers place a considerable value on certification because it demonstrates your knowledge as a technician and your commitment to your role in the pharmacy…As we see things change in the profession and advanced roles for technicians open up, certification will open a number of new opportunities…national certification also serves as a "portable credential"…approximately 280,000 technicians are currently actively certified through the PTCB (Pharmacy Technician Certification Board)…current and future technicians interested in joining those numbers to follow these steps:

• Determine Eligibility
• Prepare for the Exam
• Apply Online
• Take the Exam and Await Results
• Maintain Certification

In a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, a federal judge decided the Health Resources and Services Administration cannot enforce a rule that would allow many so-called safety-net hospitals and clinics to obtain orphan drugs at a discount… The decision caps more than two years of feuding between drug makers and the agency over a federal program known as 340B. This requires drug makers to offer discounts of up to 50 percent on all outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve indigent populations...