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The Pharmacist’s Pharmacy News Source Edition Hematology/Oncology Section begins after page 22
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Optimal Vancomycin Use Elusive Despite New Rx Guidelines Initial dosing among key points of debate Austin, Texas—Despite guidance provided by 2009 updated consensus recommendations, the precise doses and timing for vancomycin continue to pose a clinical challenge, according to research presented at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) meeting. “As pharmacists, we really spend a lot of time dosing vancomycin,” said Christopher Giuliano, PharmD, assistant clinical professor at Wayne State University’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Detroit. “We don’t even know what the correct dose is for vancomycin—I think we’re still trying
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see VANCOMYCIN, page 30
in this issue Clinical
Practice Pearls Tips for safer hazardous drugs handling.
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see HIV DRUG ERRORS, page 31
McMahon Publishing
Patients Remain the Focus For Change at PPMI Summit
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Opinion Wanted: Comparative Effectiveness Pharmacist.
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Clinical
Transplant Medicine Managing the switch to generic immunosuppressants.
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Infectious Disease Debating the merits of oral antibiotics in colectomy patients.
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Operations & Mgmt
Exclusive Interview
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Austin, Texas—An “alarming” number of HIV medication errors were documented in a retrospective study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, triggering several practice changes geared to improving the safety of antiretroviral therapy. Errors in prescribing comprised slightly more than half of the identified errors, according to the data, presented at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy annual meeting. The retrospective analysis found a total of 116 errors, involving 50 adult patients
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Medical center targets insulin to improve patient safety.
ASHP’s Henri Manasse Jr., on making PPMI action points gain traction.
Study Sheds Light On Causes of HIV Medication Errors
Volume 37 • Number 12 • December 2010
Technology
Irving, Texas—A more patient-focused future for health-system pharmacy began to take shape during last month’s Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI) Summit. More than 100 stakeholders, voting on an ambitious plank of practice goals, reached consensus on several objectives that could fundamentally change the profession. A majority of the voting participants agreed that pharmacy technicians should be licensed by state boards of
pharmacy—a steep upgrade from current regulations—and also gave their support to a requirement that all inpatients be given some degree of drug therapy management by a member of the pharmacy team. Pharmacist prescribing was also passed. But there was enough disagreement among the voting members to keep the crystal ball somewhat cloudy. For example, the group failed to reach consensus
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see FOCUS, page 32
Medication Tracking Tools for outsmarting drug diverters.
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Bar Coding Bedside bar-coding lessons learned.
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Educational Review
Despite Some Stars, Rural Hospitals Lag in EHR Adoption Critical access facilities face uphill IT battle
K IVIG Medication Safety: A Stepwise Guide to Product Selection and Use
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anabec Hospital in Mora, Minn., may be just one small health system in the constellation of more than 1,300 critical access hospitals across the United States, but it has shone brightly among its rural peers in the race to implement advanced information technology (IT). Last year, Kanabec became the first
The Book Page
critical access hospital to be recognized by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics for attaining stage 6 out of a possible 7 in electronic health record (EHR) development. “It was a huge honor,” said Brent Thompson, PharmD, director of pharmacy. The honor
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see EHR ADOPTION, page 39
New Product
Introduction to Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Practice David Holdford, Thomas Brown See page
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