Community Practice

Contributor Steve Ariens takes another run at the question of how to deal with prescriptions for controlled substances.

Publix’s 622 Florida Pharmacy stores are promoting the Lock Your Meds ® campaign throughout April.

The increased use of U-500 insulin, due to an increase in insulin resistance problems in the United States, has led to a high number of medication errors, but there are a few potential solutions, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

When patients present valid prescriptions for controlled medications and pharmacists refuse to dispense, the patients have options. And the ADA is just the beginning.

That’s the charge being made by a government watchdog group and a labor federation, which alleges that the Indiana Board of Pharmacy in 2011 approved Walgreens’ new pharmacy design with the help of the former board president who is employed by the drug chain.

Poor transitions in care cost the U.S. healthcare system $45 billion in 2011. Of the 1.5 million medication errors that harm patients each year, approximately 60% occur during transitions of care, according to Stephanie Kleyman, PharmD, who spoke about opportunities for pharmacists in transitions of care at the 2014 American Pharmacists Association annual meeting in Orlando.

During the American Pharmacists Association’s annual meeting in Orlando last weekend, the leadership called on its members to advocate for provider status and expanded scope of practice.

Here's what thousands of your fellow pharmacists were reading this month at Drug Topics

Remember Goose Rawlings’ story in the February issue of Drug Topics, the one about the young pharm school graduate who thought older pharmacists should step aside and leave their jobs to new PharmDs? Boy, did we get mail.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights has launched an investigation into alleged patient- privacy violations at Walgreens, following complaints that chain’s new pharmacy design is putting sensitive patient information at risk, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Barry Bryant is owner of Barney's Pharmacy in Augusta, Ga. He and his clinical pharmacy educator, Jake Galdo, discuss some of the ways this new technology can be used in the pharmacy.

FDA has approved once-daily topiramate extended-release capsules for initial monotherapy to treat partial-onset or primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.

Benzodiazepines and opioid medications have dangerous synergistic effects. The use of both has climbed in the last decade, and so has co-prescription.

As pharmaceutical manufacturers and other life sciences companies cut back their budgets, they are looking for technological solutions.

The National Community Pharmacists Association is asking Iowa’s Gov. Terry Branstad to sign into law H.F. 2297 legislation that would provide a level of transparency for how pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) determine reimbursement for multiple source generic drugs. The legislation would give the insurance commissioner authority to request information from PBMs in Iowa, according to a March 11 letter from NCPA to the governor.

A penicillin "allergy" label adversely affects the quantity and quality of healthcare in hospitalized patients, a new study reports.

The message for U.S. pharmacies and pharmacy chains: Follow the lead of CVS Caremark and halt pharmacy tobacco sales.

While the big chains compete aggressively for preferred provider status, indies and small chains have a tougher time cutting copays and network prices.

NCPA study finds that community pharmacy med-synch programs can improve patients’ medication adherence and boost the pharmacy's bottom line.

Pharmacists cannot solve the drug abuse problem, but they can refrain from abetting drug-seekers - and give chronic-pain patients the support they deserve.

In the wake of the recent Rite Aid HIV settlement, pharmacists face a new Catch 22.

Don't let the prescriber's hostility stop you from doing the right thing. As the pharmacist, you're the Rx expert.

How much do you identify with your work? Does your role as a pharmacist determine your sense of self? Be careful what you tell yourself. Maybe think again.

Unsalable quantities of expensive branded medications and specialty drugs. Skyrocketing prices for generic drugs. Medicaid rules about what to dispense. And there's more.

CMS is proposing a modified interpretation of the existing non-interference provisions that would remove any limitation on CMS’ regulation of the relationship between pharmacies and plan sponsors.

What would you do if you scrambled through that 3.5 hour window, only to find a colleague waiting with his foot stuck out?

Approved in October 2013 for two patient groups, Riociguat (Adempas, Bayer) is a first-in-class sGC stimulator.

Compared to plasma, treatment with 4-factor PCC for warfarin reversal in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage does not seem to reduce 30-day all-cause mortality.

In the pharmacy, an array of foot-care products awaits patients who can't stand it anymore.

Pharmacists who collaborate with ACOs can find many ways to exercise their skills and expand their knowledge. Partnerships are popping up everywhere, and so are the opportunities.