From Drug Topics: News, updates, and analysis of legal reforms and state and federal legislative actions affecting the pharmacy industry
July 1, 2009
By:Margaret Mulligan, BA, BSN, RN, Editor-in-Chief
As of June 2009, it appears that North Carolina remains the only state to require any consistent public reporting of pharmacy-associated medication errors. In North Carolina, pharmacists must report errors associated with deaths.
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July 1, 2009
By:Margaret Mulligan, BA, BSN, RN, Editor-in-Chief
Out of every 250 prescriptions written in a day, four result in medication errors. A retail customer stands a 1-in-30 chance of receiving an incorrectly filled medication. For every 1,000 prescriptions, one error is clinically important. The solution, according to pharmacists: Pharmacist-driven initiatives.
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July 1, 2009
By:Alaina Scott, Senior Editor
With the issue of limited and degraded natural resources looming ever larger, some community pharmacies are committed to doing their part for the environment.
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July 1, 2009
By:Margaret Mulligan, BA, BSN, RN, Editor-in-Chief
So what is actually happening behind the retail counter? To get an idea, Drug Topics took a brief, unscientific survey of individual community pharmacists. All the respondents felt that pharmacist counseling reduces medication errors.
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July 1, 2009
By:Mari Edlin
Medication therapy management (MTM) programs have been part of prescription drug plans since 2005 after being mandated into law in 2003. MTM gained some muscle when Medicare patients began to enroll in 2006. The 2010 draft Call Letter issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to push the MTM movement even further.
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June 30, 2009
By:Alaina Scott, Senior Editor
Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has unanimously approved a final consent order after CVS Caremark Corporation allegedly illegally dumped sensitive customer information in trash containers outside some of its drug stores.
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June 24, 2009
By:Alaina Scott, Senior Editor
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. recently announced a settlement with CVS/pharmacy that requires the company to make sure that expired products are not sold in stores and to provide customers a $2 coupon if they identify products past their sell-by dates.
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June 19, 2009
By:Alaina Scott, Senior Editor
Cheri Garvin, RPh, CEO of Leesburg Pharmacy in northern Virginia, testified June 18 at a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on the subject of "Safe and Responsible Drug Disposal."
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June 18, 2009
By:Fred Gebhart, Contributing Editor
California pharmacists have beaten back legislative attempts to kill funding for the nation's largest poison control system.
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| Drug Topics is a monthly news magazine, guided by a board of pharmacy leaders, reporting on all phases of community, retail, and health-system issues and trends. We cover managed care and professional, national, and state activities as well as new therapies involving prescription and OTC drugs.
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| What do you spend the most time counseling customers on? | | | OTC medications | | 58% | | | Painkillers | | 13% | | | Adverse drug reactions | | 20% | | | Other | | 9% | |
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