Are you ready for the new Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) standards? The accreditation handbook has been updated with an expected implementation date of November 1, 2020. The new standards include more concise language, more consistency, less repetition and of course, new standards on current best practices and regulatory requirements. Is your facility fully compliant? Do you have a consultant pharmacist on your team to help you?
Look-alike-sound-alike risks with flu vaccine and insulin may not be something you normally consider, but the risk of patient harm is extremely high. Do you have a facility specific look-alike-sound-alike list? Is it updated annually and posted in areas of medication administration? As a consultant pharmacist, I have the following five suggestions for minimizing risks and increasing patient safety.
Medication competency and your consultant pharmacist are two things that should go hand-in-hand. We all know that ongoing education and assessments are required to demonstrate staff competency and safe medication management is no exception. How are you assessing your staff? Can your consultant pharmacist help?
Medications used during surgery could be putting your patients at risk and increasing your facility and practitioner liability. Are you using Sugammadex (Bridion®) or Aprepitant (Emend®)? If so, are you providing education on discharge to your female patients about the potential increased risk of pregnancy?
With new COVID-19 outbreaks occurring across the country and the world, the concern for drug shortages is heightened. What drugs are impacted and how do they affect your organization? Do you have a contingency plan in place to deal with unexpected shortages? Work with your consultant pharmacist to resolve these issues quickly and efficiently so that patient safety and your day-to-day operations are not impacted.
Safe injection practices are one of the most commonly cited deficiencies by certification and accreditation agencies. But there is good news, your consultant pharmacist can help you avoid deficiencies! Here are the ten commonly cited issues and my recommendations for survey success.
Fireworks can be great this time of year, but as a consultant pharmacist, I don’t like to hear fireworks when it comes to surveys. Some deficiencies are fairly common and avoiding them is not that difficult. Today we will discuss three of the most common deficiencies in ambulatory surgery centers and ways to avoid them.
June is National Safety Month and at OctariusRx we recognize and support the National Safety Council’s efforts to build and advocate for a culture of safety.
Consultant pharmacists are medication management specialists who work in a variety of settings like ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), senior care facilities (e.g., nursing homes, assisted living facilities) and also by helping individual patients. These pharmacists provide expert advice on pharmaceutical services, patient safety, and drug therapy management.
In a three-part series, we will discuss how a consultant pharmacist can benefit each client and how you can find the right consultant pharmacist for your needs. This month, we’ll focus on how ASCs can enhance patient safety by using an expert consultant pharmacist. In the coming months, this series will also discuss how consultant pharmacists can have a dramatic impact on long-term care facilities and on individual patients’ lives.
This week, we’re celebrating National Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 8-14, 2020). According to the Institute for Health Improvement (IHI), National Patient Safety Week is an annual recognition event meant to encourage everyone to learn more about health care safety.
