Race is on to move millions from Medicaid to Medicare
April 4th 2005The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says it's doing all it can to move the six million people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid into the Medicare drug benefit program, which starts Jan. 1, 2006. But states and provider groups say CMS' work may not be enough.
Medifast's Weight Control Centers to debut in Kerr Drug
April 4th 2005Obese and diabetic patients may benefit from participating in a medically supervised weight loss program that provides access to a weight loss counselor. With additional counseling from a pharmacist, patients may derive even greater health benefits.
FDA Safety Page: Misadministration of capsules for inhalation
April 4th 2005The Food & Drug Administration would like to alert healthcare providers to errors involving the inadvertent oral administration of Foradil Aerolizer and Spiriva HandiHaler capsules for inhalation. In total, the FDA has received 30 cases concerning the inadvertent oral administration of the Foradil Aerolizer product and two concerning the Spiriva HandiHaler product.
Combination acne drug showing good results
March 21st 2005Connetics' investigational acne drug Velac—a once-a-day mixture of topical clindamycin and tretinoin in hydrogel—may be more convenient and at least as safe as either workhorse acne agent alone, say new studies. The findings could be hopeful news for the estimated 17 million or more Americans with acne. These results were reported at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in New Orleans last month.
CMS piecing together Medicare Part D and Part B
March 21st 2005The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing additional changes to Medicare outpatient drug programs. Earlier this month, CMS requested proposals for a system to calculate the true out-of-pocket (TrOOP) cost for patients buying drugs under the Part D benefit that begins in 2006.
AHRQ offers tool to gauge hospitals' safety culture
March 21st 2005Recognizing a need for healthcare systems to be able to evaluate employee attitudes about patient safety and quality improvements, the Medical Errors Workgroup of the Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force (QuIC) sponsored the development of a survey tool. The tool will help hospitals, and their departments, evaluate employees' support-or nonsupport-of safety and quality issues.
Many hospitals do poorly in presurgical prophylaxis
March 21st 2005Most hospitals are not complying with standard guidelines for antibiotic (ABX) prophylaxis before surgery. Barely more than half of patients in a recent study received antibiotics within one hour of the initial incision. Less than half of patients were taken off ABX prophylaxis within 24 hours following surgery. The result is an unknown number of surgical site infections that could have been prevented with more appropriate treatment.
Automakers push e-Rx pilot to improve safety
March 21st 2005An e-prescribing initiative announced recently by the Big Three automakers might help business, said Hassane Fadlallah, R.Ph. "If this is a move that could bring more prescriptions to us, that would be great,' said the owner of Dix Drugstore in Dearborn, Mich., adding that nearly two-thirds of his business comes from automaker employees and their families." It's got to be a better step for us than some of their other moves, like mandatory mail order."
Beware of new focus on bedsores and weight loss
March 21st 2005Long-term care pharmacists can expect to see more scrutiny of how they manage residents' pressure ulcers and weight control in the coming months. CMS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will add quality measures on weight loss and pressure sores to evaluations of nursing home quality.
Durham pharmacists pushing patient counseling model
March 21st 2005Medication therapy management (MTM) is mandated in the new Medicare drug benefit. And Gina Upchurch, R.Ph., MPH, hopes that will bring attention to the kind of comprehensive service provided by the MTM program she directs and supported by the local pharmacists in Durham, N.C.
Combination acne drug showing good results
March 21st 2005Connetics' investigational acne drug Velac—a once-a-day mixture of topical clindamycin and tretinoin in hydrogel—may be more convenient and at least as safe as either workhorse acne agent alone, say new studies. The findings could be hopeful news for the estimated 17 million or more Americans with acne. These results were reported at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in New Orleans last month.
JP at Large: Not a man's world anymore
March 21st 2005The sacrifices a woman has to make to have a full career are much more profound than those a man has to make. A man is expected to work for 40 straight years. Society, his family, and his friends don't even take a second look at his going to work five days a week when he has a new baby in the family. His worth as a husband and a parent are never questioned.
NCPA plans long-term community care network
March 21st 2005Gauging that the time is right to help independent pharmacies get into the long-term care marketplace, the National Community Pharmacists Association plans to build a network of practitioners trained to deliver pharmacist services to seniors.
New poll finds erosion of consumer confidence in FDA
March 21st 2005Several high-profile drug safety issues have eroded the public's confidence in the Food & Drug Administration in recent months, according to a national poll. At the same time, the majority of those polled want more funding and an independent review of the agency's operations. And they're ready to vote against politicians who want to cut funding for FDA safety programs.
Lower pill burden, novel therapies coming for HIV
March 21st 2005An estimated 39 million people worldwide are currently infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, more than 44,000 new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed in the United States in 2004. Many of these patients will be taking drug "cocktails" consisting of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
JCAHO reconsiders abbreviation protocols
March 7th 2005The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has backtracked on its prohibition against the use of potentially unsafe abbreviations. Rather than eliminating the use of QD (daily), U (units), and other shortcuts within the organizations it surveys, JCAHO is pushing to restrict abbreviation use in handwritten, preprinted, or in free text entry of patient care and medication records.
First guidelines for opportunistic infections
March 7th 2005Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has reduced the incidence of opportunistic infections (OIs) among HIV-infected patients with access to adequate medical care. Unfortunately, some patients in the United States and elsewhere do not have access to sufficient care. Others do not have a sustained response to antiretroviral agents for many reasons, including poor adherence. In these two patient groups, OIs will continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality.