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Using Downtime Time Wisely During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tips for Healthcare Facilities -Images of a Desk and chair with laptop and medical charts
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Using Downtime Time Wisely During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tips for Healthcare Facilities

Depending on your type of healthcare practice setting, you either have absolutely no free time, or very little to do during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. If you are one of the many healthcare professionals on the frontlines caring for those affected, your primary, and really, only focus, is to provide care and support for those who are ill, as well as yourself. Because of this shift in focus, there are some healthcare facilities and professionals who currently find themselves with extra time due to the sudden work reduction or work stoppage, including cancelation of elective surgeries. Don’t let this downtime go to waste…use it to prepare yourself, and your practice, to better serve your patients and enhance regulatory compliance. As a consultant pharmacist, I am always looking for ways to keep my facilities ahead of the curve: below are five ways to put your downtime to use and stay productive and be on the leading edge.

Safe Injection campaign
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The CDC’s Safe Injection Campaign Turns Ten: Compliance Tips from a Consultant Pharmacist

This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) One & Only Campaign turns ten years old. The One & Only Campaign, as you may know, focuses on eliminating unsafe injection practices. In the span of a single decade, healthcare facilities across the country have come a long way in improving patient safety via safe injection practices — but: there is still much work to be done.

Picture of a syringe being used to draw up a vaccine from a vial. Blog Post: Tips from a Consultant Pharmacist - How to Properly Store Vaccines
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Tips from a Consultant Pharmacist: How to Properly Store Vaccines

Vaccines have greatly reduced the burden of infectious diseases and they play a critical role in managing public health today. The benefits of vaccination extend far beyond prevention of specific diseases in individuals to the protection of entire societies. For vaccines to achieve their best results, however, they must be handled, stored and administered correctly. Do you know the best way to store vaccines? Is your healthcare facility following best practices for vaccine storage?

The Coronavirus & Antibiotic Stewardship: Advice from a Consultant Pharmacist
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The Coronavirus & Antibiotic Stewardship: Advice from a Consultant Pharmacist

Antibiotic stewardship is a global issue and it’s something we all must address. At the facility level, it’s not only a regulatory concern, it’s a patient safety issue. With the ongoing global spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID- 19), the issue of antibiotic stewardship (already a significant focus by the certification and accreditation bodies), has been pushed even further out into the spotlight. Beyond just being a survey challenge, antibiotic stewardship can have a profound impact on patient outcomes — not only today’s patients, but also future patients.

According to the ECRI Institute*, diagnostic testing and medication events are the two greatest risks to patient safety in ambulatory care centers today. As the landscape continues to change and healthcare delivery shifts from hospitals to ambulatory facilities, we will have to develop, and enhance, systems that minimize risks and keep our patients safe. Using the services of a consultant pharmacist can help you enhance patient safety in your ambulatory healthcare facility. The following are five ways in which a consultant pharmacist can help:
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Top 5 Ways Ambulatory Care Facilities Can Minimize Patient Risk & Liability

According to the ECRI Institute*, diagnostic testing and medication events are the two greatest risks to patient safety in ambulatory care centers today. As the landscape continues to change and healthcare delivery shifts from hospitals to ambulatory facilities, we will have to develop, and enhance, systems that minimize risks and keep our patients safe. Using the services of a consultant pharmacist can help you enhance patient safety in your ambulatory healthcare facility. The following are five ways in which a consultant pharmacist can help:

Is your ambulatory care facility ready for survey? Ok, ok: that’s probably a rhetorical question as you never feel truly ready, right? Though surveys are routine events for facilities, they can still be unnerving. No matter how prepared you may be, it’s only human to become a bit anxious when faced with an unannounced ‘pop quiz’.
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A Consultant Pharmacist’s Top 10 Tips for Ensuring Survey Success: Part 1

Is your ambulatory care facility ready for survey? Ok, ok: that’s probably a rhetorical question as you never feel truly ready, right? Though surveys are routine events for facilities, they can still be unnerving. No matter how prepared you may be, it’s only human to become a bit anxious when faced with an unannounced ‘pop quiz’.

Ambulatory Surgery Center? Get Benchmarking Done with a Consultant Pharmacist.
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Ambulatory Surgery Center? Get Benchmarking Done with a Consultant Pharmacist.

If you manage an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) or other ambulatory healthcare facility, benchmarking is probably a concern for your organization. Benchmarking is not just a requirement of accrediting agencies such as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) and The Joint Commission (TJC): it’s a critical component of quality assessment and improvement.