A new study, conducted in Irish hospitals and published in a British journal, reviewed the effectiveness of a “collaborative” model of managing hospital patients’ medications. The model, known as the Collaborative Pharmaceutical Care in Tallaght Hospital (PACT), involves close involvement of clinical pharmacists in all stages of patient care during…
Pharmacies often rely on a team of medical professionals to meet the demands of customers. These teams consist of pharmacists, who must meet educational and licensing requirements in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia; and pharmacy technicians, who are not always subject to such strict credentialing requirements. Some…
In a report on its investigation of the national pharmacy chain CVS/pharmacy, Washington DC’s NBC affiliate, News 4, claims to have found numerous alleged medication errors and other problems. Consumers reported receiving the wrong prescription and, in at least one case, meeting with indifference from employees. A former CVS pharmacist…
A hospital in Houston, Texas has adopted a “narrative-based approach” of communicating the details of medication errors to hospital staff (login required). A medication safety consultant employed by the hospital found that the prior approach, which relied on unit managers to pass along information to their teams, was not leading…
Confusion between two similarly-named drugs can be harmful or even fatal if the error is not detected quickly. An error could result from any number of circumstances, such as a pharmacist who misreads a doctor’s handwriting or a nurse who accidentally administers the wrong drug. The U.S. Food and Drug…
A federal court dismissed most of the causes of action in a lawsuit alleging that a generic antibiotic caused a dangerous, potentially-fatal reaction. Wilson v. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, LLC, No. 1:13-cv-00333, order (D. Id., Dec. 31, 2013). The lawsuit asserted claims under Idaho state law, but the decision is similar to…
The Massachusetts Senate voted late last month unanimously to increase regulatory oversight within the state of drug compounding pharmacies, in order to help protect patient safety. The potential issues regarding the largely unregulated compounding pharmacies such as the one in Massachusetts, which was believed to be the source of a…
Johnson & Johnson recently made the decision to make some changes in the way it labels Tylenol, specifically in regards to adding additional warnings of the potential dangers the drug may pose. The warning will make it explicitly clear that the over-the-counter drug contains acetaminophen, a pain-relieving ingredient that’s the…
Individuals in Ireland with diabetes may be at a serious risk of injecting themselves with dangerously high levels of insulin, due to an error in glucose monitoring kits recently discovered. According to the authorities, some 4,100 boxes of test strips, which are directly used to measure glucose levels in the…