October 24th 2024
Nina Vadiei, PharmD, BCPP, a clinical associate professor at UT Austin and a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry at San Antonio State Hospital, discusses her career as a psychiatric pharmacist.
The pain game: With safety concerns slowing traditional treatments, new options are filling the void
April 16th 2007Debilitating pain-affecting millions of Americans-was often alleviated by traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and COX-2 inhibitors. But the appeal of these once-popular drugs is declining due to safety concerns.
Squaring off: Should every hospital join a GPO?
April 16th 2007Yes. Group purchasing organizations help hospitals lower the cost of providing quality patient care, and every hospital can benefit from joining a GPO. GPOs help hospitals obtain the best price on medications and supplies, realize opportunities for cost savings, and access information that can help improve supply-chain performance.
The pain game: With safety concerns slowing traditional treatments, new options are filling the void
April 16th 2007Debilitating pain-affecting millions of Americans-was often alleviated by traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and COX-2 inhibitors. But the appeal of these once-popular drugs is declining due to safety concerns.
Infection surveillance software can save lives
April 16th 2007As many as 100,000 patients die every year from hospital-acquired infections. It doesn't have to be that way. HAIs are eminently preventable. Tools exist that can significantly lower HAI mortality and morbidity rates and reduce an associated $6 billion in excess annual health costs.
Controversy continues to surround generic insulin
April 16th 2007Diabetes is a deadly, common and costly disease, so the debate about biogenerics is ardent when it concerns insulin. The drug is expensive and indispensable, and scientists agree that creating generic insulin is simpler than creating most other potential biologic equivalents.
Clinical twisters: Assessing risk to QT interval
April 16th 2007A 70-year-old woman, T.R., has been transferred from an extended care nursing facility to your hospital with symptoms of fever, dyspnea with respiratory difficulty, cough, and sputum production. Her current medications include methadone 200 mg/ day (pain syndrome), risperidone (Risperdal, Janssen) 2 mg twice daily, digoxin 0.125 mg daily, and furosemide 20 mg twice daily.
Caution: Heparin errors can have fatal results
April 2nd 2007Last September, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) reported an incident that occurred at a Midwestern hospital. A pharmacy technician had stocked an automated dispensing cabinet with heparin 10,000 units/ml vials in a drawer reserved for heparin 10 units/ml. The nurses retrieving the vials did not notice the discrepancy in strength and used the 10,000 units/ml heparin for umbilical line flushes of six premature infants. Three of the babies died of heparin overdose.
Growing standards boost pharmacy practice
March 19th 2007Practice standards and innovation are the chicken and egg of health-system pharmacy practice. For regulators, more demanding standards of practice are the impetus behind innovations that improve patient care and outcomes. Joint Commission standards, for example, are designed to improve patient care and patient outcomes. The commission doesn't care how health systems meet new practice standards, just that the standards are met, noted commission surveyor Darryl Rich.
How these luminaries helped shape pharmacy
March 19th 2007In recognition of the many shining stars who have guided the profession over the years, Drug Topics caught up with four leaders who have helped shape the practice of health-system pharmacy. These luminaries discussed some of the pressing issues they faced during their tenure at the helm of ASHP as well as their opinions about the future of the profession.
The Health-System Edition: From its genesis to the present
March 19th 2007Serving the informational needs of hospital pharmacists has always been a high priority for Drug Topics. While every issue of the magazine has some articles of interest to hospital R.Ph.s, a concerted effort to reach them is made in every second issue of the month with our Health-System Edition (HSE).
Guest Spot: A personal journey through hospital pharmacy
March 19th 2007Though modest at its inception, the arc of growth of hospital pharmacy as a specialty area of practice has been virtually unprecedented in its impact and scope. Since August of 1942, when 162 stalwarts formed the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists in Denver, the role and scope of pharmacy practice in American hospitals have evolved into a central and critical element of patient care. Much of this growth is a function of the increasingly important and complex nature of drug therapy in hospital care and the overall growth of acute care in our healthcare delivery system.
Hospital pharmacies to go high-tech and decentralized
March 19th 2007Hospitals and other healthcare facilities of the future will look more like hotels or office buildings and less like the institutional and often inconveniently designed buildings that many think of today, said Greg Lasker, an assistant professor of building construction management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. According to Lasker, Clarion North Medical Center in Carmel, Ind., is a precursor of what hospitals of the future will look like.
How pharmacy technology has evolved: What is and what could be
March 19th 2007During the past 50 years, advances in technology have enabled pharmacists to become more efficient and more accurate during the typical day, while simultaneously giving pharmacy personnel more time to interact one-on-one with patients.