Health System

Between 2010 and 2013, a significant decline in medical errors at U.S. hospitals reduced hospital-acquired conditions, saving an estimated 50,000 lives and billions of dollars.

The V-Go delivers CSII by means of a disposable patch device and provide insulin for 24 hours.

This patient's birthday was the happiest day of her life. But that's only half the reason the hospital pharmacist has never forgotten her.

Exploding patient numbers mean that insulin use will increase - as will varieties of insulin, methods of administration, and dosage algorithms.

With medication shortages now a fact of life in U.S. healthcare, it is imperative for facilities and organizations to have a pharmacist-driven action plan in place and in use.

System-wide medication visibility can be key to delivering the highest levels of patient safety at the lowest possible cost.

ASHP midyear update: Efforts on Capitol Hill are paying off.

Improvement in HCAHPS scores is possible with pharmacists’ involvement in patient education efforts, according to a report at the 2014 ASHP Midyear meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

A Texas hospital has stationed pharmacists in its emergency department in hopes of reducing medication errors.

New Rx, generics, and OTC products

Diabetes has emerged as one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood and adolescence. In order to guide these young people, healthcare providers need to engage them on their own terms, using their own media.

SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, inhaled insulin, extended-release treatments, and fixed-dose combination therapies are among the approaches that have emerged to treat the exploding numbers of type 2 diabetes patients.

Prescription painkillers were involved in nearly 70% of the opioid-related overdoses treated at hospital emergency rooms in 2010, according to a study recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

FDA recently approved once-daily Xigduo XR (dapagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride (HCI) extended-release) for adults with type 2 diabetes, according to AstraZeneca.

Fifteen hospitals have been selected to participate in a quality improvement program that focuses on insulin pen safety in their practice settings, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

Despite diligent efforts by a multihospital system to reduce errors associated with insulin pens, they still occur, according to a new report.

Only 6% of hospitals in the United States are well prepared to receive Ebola patients, according to a recent survey of infection prevention experts by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

ConnecT2Day is designed to help healthcare providers counsel patients in managing type 2 diabetes.

Adults can protect themselves against flu with a needle-free option. There's a benefit for vaccine administrators too - no needle sticks.

Health plans that have not scored at least three stars for the last three consecutive years will be vulnerable to elimination from the Medicare system. Pharmacists are in an ideal position to help with those scores.

New Rx, indications, generics, and OTC products

The maelstrom that has erupted since Genentech switched three top-selling cancer medications to specialty distributors is not expected to die down anytime soon.

FDA has approved two new HIV-1 cocktail drugs: elvitegravir (Vitekta, Gilead), an integrase inhibitor and cobicistat (Tybost, Gilead), a protease-inhibitor booster.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FDA undertook a study to determine the most commonly implicated active ingredients responsible for childhood poisonings that required emergency hospitalization in the hope of identifying prevention and intervention strategies. Buprenorphine and clonidine were the most common of 12 active ingredients that were found in 45.0% of these hospitalizations.

A literature review going back 20 years found only a modest increase in patients' risk of developing statin-related conditions.

Albiglutide injection is the newest GLP-1 approved for once-weekly dosing in patients with type II diabetes, to be used in addition to diet and exercise.

New Rx, indications, generics, and OTC

Nicotine poisonings have increased 307%; 51.1% involved young children under the age of five. Need we say more?

Indies are adopting new patient-care models that benefit both patients and pharmacy. Three community pharmacists show us how it's done.

Sometimes you gotta call 'em like you see 'em. For everybody.