Who is the best consultant pharmacist? Have you ever asked yourself if you’re working with the best consultant pharmacist? How would you know? Is there a way to make that determination or find out? The answer is yes! This week I will discuss seven ways to decide if your pharmacy consultant is the best one for your organization.
New year’s resolutions are always a good way to kick off the year. The new year is upon us and as usual, we have a clean slate to work with. What will you do with it? Here are my suggestions for top 5 work-related resolutions for 2021.
As we approach 2021, I take a few moments to look back at some of the biggest stories impacting us this year. Each year is unique and has its own challenges. When it comes to challenges, we all realize 2020 is unprecedented and will stand out in our memories…often for the wrong reasons. As a consultant pharmacist, I get asked for advice daily. In this post, I discuss some of the topics that generated the most questions and drew the most attention from our clients. This is a small sample of topics we helped our partners with this year.
Are Expired Medications Still Good? As a consultant pharmacist, I get asked this question almost daily. Whether it’s from a patient at home, someone at a nursing facility or an ambulatory surgery center, we all encounter expired medications. Can you still use them? Should you replace them? How should you handle expired medications?
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?
The National Alert Network issued an alert regarding wrong-route errors with tranexamic acid. The reported cases involved the accidental spinal injection of tranexamic acid instead of a local anesthetic to provide regional anesthesia. Some of the contributing factors in these cases, as well as other mix-ups, include vials with similar caps and poor syringe labeling.
Working with a Consultant Pharmacist to Open an ASC is something every organization should consider. Opening an ASC requires extensive organization and collaboration between various experts. Involving a highly qualified consultant pharmacist among your team of expert advisors will help ensure patient safety, regulatory compliance, and survey success. Are you considering opening an ASC? Have you gathered all the necessary advisors to ensure your grand opening is as seamless as possible?
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?
The FDA recommends prescribers discuss naloxone when prescribing opioids or medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD). In a recent Drug Safety Communication posted on July 23, 2020, the FDA made the recommendations about naloxone in an effort to reduce the risk of death from opioid overdose. Do you know what the FDA is recommending? What steps do you need to take as a prescriber?
