- Value-Based Care and Motivational Interviewing (pharmacytimes.com)
Bruce A. Berger, PhD, president of Berger Consulting LLC, discusses how motivational interviewing plays into value-based care. (video)
- Museum Exhibit Celebrates Oldest Operating Pharmacy in the US (pharmacytimes.com)Carl’s Drug Store (greencastlemuseum.org)
….oldest, continuously operating drugstore in the country…Allison-Antrim Museum in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, is commemorating the 190th anniversary of Carl’s Drug Store with a special exhibit from July through September 2015…Pharmacy founder Adam Carl arrived in Greencastle in April 1825 and opened the store in his home…
- Concierge Pharmacy: Providing Medication Management at Physicians’ Offices (pharmacytimes.com)
Concierge pharmacists are working directly in physicians’ offices to personalize chronic care medication management for patients…. delivering chronic care medication services at the point of care… services can produce better patient outcomes, lower health care costs, and improve Medicare Star Ratings, according to RXVIP… pharmacists pay a visit to the physician’s office 1 day a week…review and evaluate drug interactions, dosing, adverse effects, and adherence. Patients will also be encouraged to make lifestyle changes if necessary…pharmacists employ the CeutiCare ICG Intelligent Clinical Guidance system, which monitors patients and provides medication therapy treatment plans for the physician to review...
- 3 ways pharmacies can build CMS Star Ratings (drugtopics.modernmedicine.com)
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...
- Pharmacies Hosted at Workplaces Increase Medication Adherence (pharmacytimes.com)
Employers with onsite pharmacies are seeing a return on investment in the form of increased medication adherence among their health plan members…Onsite pharmacies provide employees with a convenient option for filling discounted prescriptions that is integrated with other employer-sponsored wellness programs. These onsite initiatives aim to contain employers’ health care expenditures while supporting healthy lifestyles and increasing productivity across health plan members.
- Biggest Roadblocks to Managing COPD (pharmacytimes.com)
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.
- Opioid overdose prevention (japha.org)
Pharmacists have essential role in opioid overdose prevention…one-half of opioid painkiller users are unaware that these drugs are as addictive as heroin. Pharmacists hold many important roles in opioid overdose prevention…An increasing number of insurers pay pharmacists to perform annual comprehensive medication reviews, during which pharmacists can discuss naloxone with patients who have risk factors for overdose…pharmacists can reduce opioid overdose and death in their communities.
- How to Balance Requirements from Payers and Manufacturers (specialtypharmacytimes.com)
Jon Hamrick, executive vice president, Biotech and Specialty Services at Therigy LLC, discusses how specialty pharmacies can best navigate complex reporting requirements from multiple entities.
- Quarantine All Sterile Drugs from Compounder Medistat (pharmacytimes.com)FDA Announces Medistat RX’s Nationwide Voluntary Recall of Sterile Drug Products (fda.gov)
All non-expired drugs produced for sterile use by Alabama-based compounder Medistat RX have been recalled due to potential contamination, the FDA is warning pharmacists… recalled products were distributed nationwide between Nov. 1, 2014, and Sept. 3, 2015… FDA investigators and Alabama inspectors observed significant deficiencies that raised concerns about the compounder’s ability to assure the sterility of the drugs it produced.
- Pharmacist error rate rises as workload climbs (drugtopics.modernmedicine.com)Frequency of and risk factors for medication errors by pharmacists during order verification in a tertiary care medical center (abstract) (ajhp.org)
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…