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...the governor of Massachusetts signed legislation that includes language recognizing pharmacists as health care providers in the state...The new law, S.2984: An Act Promoting a Resilient Health Care System That Puts Patients First, not only expands scope of practice for certain health care providers, but also increases insurance coverage for telehealth services...“This is a culmination of nearly a decade of advocating for pharmacists and their profession in our state,” said Massachusetts Pharmacists Association President Maureen Judkins, PharmD...READ MORE

For our 2020 survey, we received 1037 responses from pharmacists. This year undoubtedly posed new challenges for pharmacy amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and our findings underscore the effects...Compensation...pharmacists are still largely making close to what they made in previous years...41% said they received additional income in 2020. The highest earners reported an extra $15,000 or more on average, but most respondents reported between $1001 to $5000 in extra income...Stress and Workload...Management pressure, high work volume, endless amounts of paperwork––all of these are part of a pharmacist’s job...Compounded with the ongoing pandemic and high patient demand, it is no surprise that pharmacists are generally feeling more overwhelmed this year...survey results showed that pharmacists reported higher stress levels and increased workloads in 2020 compared with previous years. Seventy-three percent indicated increased stress levels in 2020 compared with 61% in 2019...READ MORE

Despite multiple published guidelines and antimicrobial stewardship programs, inappropriate antibiotic prescribing persists. Can simple behavioral “nudges”—including low-hanging fruit such as tip sheets and posters, as well as default-choice restriction of microbiology lab reports to a list of selected antimicrobials—steer providers in the appropriate direction, thus reducing both the inappropriate use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance?...READ MORE

Pharmacist remuneration models in ever-evolving healthcare settings must be examined if global health is to be supported...“A common concern among pharmacy associations worldwide is the long-term financial viability of professional services delivered by pharmacists. These concerns are first and foremost triggered by the impacts of continued price and margin cuts in dispensing of medicines and the non-allocation of funding in many settings for extended professional services and social care,”...“A successful remuneration model is one that promotes sustainable delivery of professional services. These should be integrated into broader health system strategies and, therefore, funding plans...READ MORE

Jocelyn Konrad, Rite Aid’s executive vice president and chief pharmacy officer, said the mission of RxEvolution and the new store format is to unlock the value of its pharmacists to support its customers and communities...“The Store of the Future highlights the RxEvolution strategy as the whole store is reimagined and remodeled,” she said. “Whether it be the front-end merchandise and, in particular, the way we have reintroduced the pharmacist to our customers in a very different way that has never been done before. Historically, the industry kept that pharmacist back in the production end of the pharmacy and what we have literally done is pulled that pharmacist out to be front and center for our customers, so there’s always a connection every time the customer is in our stores.”...READ MORE

A new Aetna pilot program aims to harness its parent company's pharmacy reach to help address members' social needs...Through the HealthTag initiative, CVS Health pharmacists and pharmacy employees are empowered to offer more personalized information when Aetna Medicaid members come to pick up prescriptions, providing the members with health information beyond how to take their medications appropriately...Inside the prescription bag, members are provided additional details on how to access community services to address social concerns like food, housing or transportation. The network of these organizations is backed by Unite Us, a social care coordination program...Aetna will pilot the program at CVS pharmacies in West Virginia and Louisiana...READ MORE

CVS Health is pushing for pharmacy technicians to be allowed to administer COVID-19 vaccines...The healthcare giant is hiring more than 10,000 full- and part-time pharmacy technicians in Q4 in anticipation of flu season, and urging for them to have an expanded scope of practice that would allow them to vaccinate patients for the novel coronavirus under supervision from an immunization-certified pharmacist...CVS said that allowing technicians to administer vaccines would "help fill the urgent need to safely and quickly scale distribution of a vaccine and extend the capacity of the health care workforce to address the pandemic."...READ MORE

• Safety Issues Related to Labeling, Packaging, and Nomenclature
• Safety Issues Associated With Order Communication and Documentation
• Problems Involving Drug Information, Patient Information, Patient Education, and Staff Education
• Safety Issues Related to Medical Devices and Equipment
• Other Discussion Items
• SMP’s Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals...READ MORE

A draft NHS England report on overprescribing leaked to HSJ [paywall], proposes that the law should require wider access to healthcare data, in a bid to improve patient safety...The review carried out for health secretary, Matt Hancock, highlights the issue of poor interoperability between NHS computer systems, which means clinicians cannot see or understand what medications patients are taking or when a medication should be reviewed...According to report author, chief pharmaceutical officer Keith Ridge, prescribers should be identified in the electronic health record so they can be contacted by other clinicians. He adds that a free-text box should be created in EHRs so clinicians can explain why a certain medication has been prescribed...READ MORE

Goals to support the transformation of the pharmacy profession around the world are launched today by FIP...The FIP Development Goals build on 13 Pharmaceutical Workforce Development Goals for pharmacy education developed by the federation in 2016. Additions have been made to these 13 goals and eight new goals have been developed, providing a total of 21 goals relevant to fields of practice and science as well as to workforce and education...READ MORE

The new goals cover:

• Medicines expertise
• People-centred care
• Communicable diseases
• Antimicrobial stewardship
• Access to medicines, devices & services
• Patient safety
• Digital health
• Sustainability in pharmacy