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Over the past several years, there has been a monumental push for hospitals to transition to electronic health records and computerized physician order entry, with the hope of standardizing and streamlining care, improving medication safety, and reducing errors. In fact, some studies estimate that more than 70% of prescriptions are now written electronically. Although CPOE has come a long way in a short period of time, is the technology living up to its potential?...CPOE systems are very fragmented both within hospital systems and between the hospital and the outpatient universe...CPOE in terms of safer medication prescribing is still a work in progress...We found several areas where CPOE systems fall short in terms of medication safety, and hospital pharmacists can play an important role in resolving some of these issues...

• CPOE and medication prescribing
• Interoperability
• CPOE aggravation
• The next frontier
• Room for improvement
• Hospital pharmacists’ role

When you have systems between inpatient and outpatient that don’t communicate, important information can get lost in translation…CPOE isn’t just a hospital pharmacy issue; it’s an issue for the profession at large...Pharmacy has a significant stake in the matter of CPOE, but we really are learning as we go along...that is why you see so much frustration between prescribers and the hospital systems. To solve the problem, multiple professions beyond just health care professionals, with different thought processes, will need to work together...

California is set to become one of the first states where women can get birth control from a pharmacist without a prescription with the goal of reducing unwanted pregnancies...Proponents of the new law say it will give younger women easier access...But doctors like gynecologist Kathleen Valenton have concerns...“I think that’s very dangerous,” she said, since pharmacists cannot perform health screenings, including STD checks...Many of the details of the law are still being worked out in Sacramento. It is set to take effect in March.

As part of its advocacy and community outreach efforts during American Pharmacists Month, the American Pharmacists Association is partnering with the co-chairs of the House Community Pharmacy Caucus, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and Walgreens to host the 3rd Annual Capitol Hill Health Fair on October 28. Flu shots and health screenings, including bone density, glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, and body composition will be available to members of Congress, staff, and the general public in the Rayburn Foyer in the Rayburn House Office Building from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Pharmacists from Walgreens and student pharmacists from:

• University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy
• University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
• Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy
• Howard University College of Pharmacy
• Shenandoah University Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy
• Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy

Pharmacies can more easily manage their patients on medication synchronization...PrescribeWellness …launched StarWellness+, an add-on service to PrescribeWellness’ popular Med Sync software, StarWellness…empowers pharmacies…to streamline their workflow for patients enrolled in medication synchronization….the pharmacist can push synced medications into the workflow queue of virtually any pharmacy management system… will help them expand their med sync offering and improve adherence with hundreds of their patients…

McKesson Pharmacy Systems & Automation has released the McKesson Clinical Programs Solution, a new platform that enables pharmacists to build customized wellness programs...the Clinical Programs Solution also allows pharmacists to maintain vendor programs for patients with specific medical conditions and saves time and labor costs by automatically synchronizing the data of patients enrolled in a clinical program with McKesson’s EnterpriseRx pharmacy management system...The Clinical Programs Solution offers a wide range of program management capabilities, including a patient-centric view of a patient’s programs and information, real-time notification if a patient is eligible for a clinical program when a prescription is being filled with EnterpriseRx, and a central platform for pharmacies with multiple locations to manage all of their clinical programs.

Alongside the growing prevalence of chronic pain and prescription opioid use, drug-related overdose continues to claim the lives of 17,000 Americans each year...Deaths from unintentional opioid overdose have increased 56% since 2010. In 2013, 83% of the opioid overdoses were unintentional...In 2010, there were approximately 136,000 emergency room visits related to opioid-induced respiratory depression and overdose. Needless to say, opioid overdoses are...drastically increasing health care costs...When naloxone is administered by first responders outside an institutional setting, it can improve outcomes for emergency opioid reversal prior to a patient reaching the emergency department. There are currently 2 FDA-approved naloxone formulations for take-home use: the auto-injector...and the new intranasal formulation...

• Who Should Receive Take-Home Naloxone?
• The Risk Index for Overdose or Serious Opioid-Induced Respiratory Depression (RIOSORD)
• Risk Factors Associated with OSORD (opioid-induced respiratory depression)
• How Can I Use RIOSORD in a Community Pharmacy?
• Risk Mitigation and Patient Education
• Conclusion

With the availability of naloxone for take-home use, no one should lament over the loss of a loved one because a life-saving medication was not easily accessible...We can’t agree that naloxone availability will end opioid overdose deaths, but it certainly is our professional responsibility to ensure that we’ve taken every step to reduce risks...Pharmacists, physicians, and student clinicians have an excellent opportunity to mitigate opioid overdose risks by employing the validated RIOSORD tool. RIOSORD can aid opioid prescribers in identifying at risk patients, and it can also help encourage a candid dialogue among pharmacists, patients, and caregivers to reduce patient harm.

The government and private insurers have been trying for years to move away from the fee-for-service system that pays doctors and hospitals based on the volume of tests they perform and treatments they prescribe. They want to replace it with contracts that reward quality and better outcomes… changes in the reimbursement model are rippling out to manufacturers of drugs and devices…shift could help address a long-standing problem with medical advances:..benefits observed in carefully designed clinical trials don’t always materialize when a treatment is deployed in the real world…linking payment to performance, while appealing in theory, is tricky. "What metric are you going to select to measure performance?

Pharmacists in Oregon are now permitted to prescribe birth control pills to qualifying women as part of a wave of new state laws for 2016...Oregon is the first U.S. state to put such a law into effect, with California reportedly looking to follow suit...A doctor's approval is no longer needed for a supply of pills, although experts urge women not to overlook preventative health care in the form of doctor visits...having birth control accessible through a pharmacist doesn't mean preventative health care isn't important...women over age 18 will still be required to fill out a health questionnaire trained pharmacists will use to determine whether to write a prescription. Pharmacists are reportedly still free to refuse prescriptions for religious reasons, but must refer a customer somewhere else.

In time for the quit smoking New Year resolutions that are anticipated at the end of this month, the International Pharmaceutical Federation has outlined the wide variety of different ways in which pharmacists can reduce the use of tobacco through a new publication. The briefing document, "Establishing tobacco-free communities: A practical guide for pharmacists", gives a number of examples from around the world, showcasing pharmacists’ value in performing health promotion, triage and referral as well as other interventions.

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.