NEW JERSEY SOCIETY OF HEALTH-SYSTEM PHARMACISTS

2011
ANNUAL MEETING/EXHIBITION & INSTALLATION DINNER
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2011
HILTON EAST BRUNSWICK
3 TOWER CENTER BLVD.
EAST BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY
(732) 828-2000
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

The deadline to submit an abstract for the poster session of the 2011 NJSHP Annual Meeting is February 1, 2011, 11:59 pm EST. The abstract submission form will be available to download from www.njshp.org. The form must be completed and submitted with an abstract to swilliam@njha.com. Information about the acceptance or rejection of the abstracts will be available by March 1, 2011.

Northern Chapter

November 30, 2010
JCAHO Medication Management (2-hr law CE)
Location: Wallace Auditorium at Overlook Hospital
99 Beauvoir Avenue
Summit, NJ
Time:TBA
Speaker: Andre Emont, Pharm.D.
RSVP:TBA

December 14, 2010
Topic: Management of the Poisoned Patients: A Case-Based Approach
Location: Seton Hall University - 4th Floor Atrium, Jubilee Hall 400 South Orange Avenue
South Orange, NJ
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. - Registration/Dinner
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. - Presentation
8:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - Baxter (NO CE Credit)
Presented by: Thomas A. Lamondra
Senior Manager, Healthcare Reimbursement and Advocacy
Speaker: Bruce Ruck, Pharm.D., DABAT
Director of Drug Information & Professional Education New Jersey Poison Information and Education System Newark, NJ
RSVP:njshpnorthcentralchapter@yahoo.com
(SEATING LIMITED TO 60 ATTENDEES)

Southern Chapter

December 15, 2010
Aerosolized Antibiotics in Hospital Acquired Pneumonia
Location:Kennedy CV Conference Room
Cherry Hill
Time:6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Speaker:Quinn A. Czosnowski, Pharm.D., BCPS
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
Department of Pharmacy Practice & Pharmacy Administration
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
RSVP:TBA

January, 2011
Topic: Management of Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia
Location: Kennedy CV Conference Room
Cherry Hill
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Speaker: Helen LoSasso, Pharm.D.
Clinical Manager Pharmacy Services Kennedy Health System
Stratford, NJ
RSVP:TBA

February, 2011
Topic: Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation Patients
Location: Virtua Center for Learning
Mt. Laurel, NJ
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Speaker: Stephanie Polli, Pharm.D.
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Cardiovascular Diseases
Cooper University Hospital
Camden, NJ
RSVP: TBA

Recent Events Summary
o Residency Roundtable, October 27th
Current residents from different hospitals shared their experiences with students about residencies.
Topics of discussion included: application process, the match-up, and what they do while on rotation.
We had residents from 4 different hospitals around the area come.
o Monster Mash, October 29th
Students dressed up in Halloween costumes and gave candy to children whose neighborhoods are too dangerous to trick-or-treat in.
NJSHP had a penny pitch and pumpkin making activity at their table for children as well as candy.
Various organizations at Rutgers had a table for children.
o Internship Roundtable, November 3rd
Students who have done an internship entered a panel to tell younger students about their experiences and how they got their internship.
We had a panel of 14 students who all did different internships ranging from hospital, industry, retail, and research.
This was a joint event with APhA.
o Clinical Pharmacy Event, November 10th
Dr. Choudry shared her experiences with students about clinical pharmacy and how she got to where she is today.
Topics of discussion included: general role and responsibility at practice site, career path to position, and training required for the position.
o Hospital Field Trip, November 13th
11 students visited St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Paterson for presentations on different topics in pharmacy and a tour of the hospital.
Students ranged from 1st years to 5th years.
Topics included: Director of Pharmacy perspective, pharmacy practice model, pediatric pharmacy, medication safety, anticoagulation, and resident perspective.
Special thanks to Radhika Pisupati PharmD, BCPS for helping us set up this event and making it a success.

Visit our website http://njshprutgers.weebly.com gallery for pictures of our past events!

Please feel free to contact me via e-mail, laurenfaust@comcast.net or cell: 856-261-1128 with any questions or comments. Lauren Faust, NJSHP Rutgers Chapter President

NJSHP is now accepting nominations for state-level officers. Are you interested in getting more involved with NJSHP? Do you know someone who would be great in the following positions? Now’s the time for you to get more involved or nominate a fellow peer. NJSHP can even help you prepare your nomination. Here are the available positions:

•President-Elect (1) This leadership position offers an individual the opportunity to direct our organization. Term of president-elect is for one year, after which this position assumes the presidency.

•Treasurer (1) Position serves to oversee the management of the day-to-day finances of the Society. Additional functions are secondary to the treasurer’s participation in other activities.

•Director of the Council (2) Two positions will be available. One involves the council on educational affairs, and the other, council on professional affairs. Both positions allow an individual with the right motivation to have an impact on the course of the profession of pharmacy practice.

If you want more information about serving as a state-level officer, contact Stella Williams, Administrative Director, at (609) 936-2205 or swilliam@njha.com

Recruitment Form Click this link for the Membership Form.

State Pin Get into the Society Spirit and order your state pin today. State pins can be ordered easily through the NJSHP website.

Groups Develop Recommendations to Prevent Patient Harm, Minimize Disruptions in Care
11/8/2010
Leaders from key health care stakeholder organizations met last week in Bethesda, Md., for a Drug Shortages Summit to develop a coordinated effort to address the critical issue of drug shortages. The invitation-only Summit was convened by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

Problems caused by drug shortages have received much public attention in recent months and have caused significant disruptions in patient care. These disruptions include canceled or delayed medical treatments and procedures, as well as adverse events caused by medications that may have the potential for greater harm than the first line therapy that is unavailable due to a shortage.

Read More

Consensus Conference Sets Course for Future of Pharmacy Practice in Hospitals and Health Systems
11/10/2010
The Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI) Summit, which began Sunday in Dallas, concluded yesterday with a series of major new recommendations about how pharmacy in hospitals and health-systems should be practiced in the future. The Summit, held November 7-9, was part of the ASHP and ASHP Foundation’s Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative. The Summit’s recommendations will be published early next year in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP), along with the full proceedings and briefing documents. Recommendations addressed overarching principles for future pharmacy practice models, including:

• Pharmacist provided services that all patients should receive,
• The role of technicians and technology in optimizing the patient care role of pharmacists, and
• How to implement new practice models in diverse practice settings.

The Summit was an invitational consensus conference bringing together thought leaders throughout hospital and health-system pharmacy to reach consensus on optimal practice models that are based on the effective use of pharmacists as direct patient care providers. The attendee list, which includes participants and observers, is available online

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Cheryl A. Thompson BETHESDA, MD 15 November 2010
FDA on October 19 approved the marketing of dabigatran etexilate, or Pradaxa, as a preventive to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the new drug, when taken at a dosage of 150 mg twice daily in a large study, outdid standard-of-care warfarin in preventing stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

Patients receiving dabigatran etexilate, FDA said, do not need to undergo the periodic blood monitoring that warfarin users do.

But like warfarin, dabigatran etexilate puts patients at risk of serious bleeding, the agency warned.

That risk is explained to patients in the FDA-approved medication guide and to health care professionals in the product’s labeling.

"I think this is an enormous advance in terms of offering an alternative to warfarin," Ann K. Wittkowsky, director of anticoagulation services at 450-bed University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, said of the new drug.

At 621-bed Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Snehal B. Bhatt said the new drug seems an "attractive" alternative for warfarin users whose International Normalized Ratio (INR) tends not to stay within the target range.

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Kate Traynor BETHESDA, MD 15 November 2010
FDA today notified health care providers of a Class I recall of Sigma Spectrum infusion pumps because the devices may suddenly fail, possibly resulting in back flow, free flow, or overinfusion.

The recall was initiated by Sigma on September 15 and affects model 35700 with serial numbers from 706497 to 724065. Sigma asked its customers to return these pumps to the company for exchange.

Customers will not receive back their original pumps and must reinstall their customized master drug library and, for wireless operation, their network configuration information.

Sigma stated (PDF) that the company is aware of 10 cases of mechanical failure in the lower camshaft bearing of the pump assembly during testing or use. The pump does not issue an alarm when the failure occurs.

In 3 cases, a patient was connected to a pump that failed. No patient deaths or serious injuries have been attributed to the pump failures, according to the company.

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Kate Traynor BETHESDA, MD 15 November 2010
By January 1, 2011, hospital pharmacies that plan to sell durable medical equipment (DME) to Medicare beneficiaries must either be accredited or obtain an exemption, even if the only products sold are diabetic testing supplies.

Accreditation was legislatively mandated in 2008, with a September 2009 deadline that was later changed to January 2010. This past spring, the health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act both extended the deadline by a year and created the exemption.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a pharmacy may be exempt from accreditation if its DME billings constitute less than 5% of total pharmacy sales, the pharmacy has had a Medicare provider number and been enrolled as a DME supplier for at least five years, and no "final adverse action" has been taken against the pharmacy during the past five years. Pharmacies must attest that they meet these criteria and agree to be audited for compliance with them.

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Weatherford Regional Medical Center (WRMC) in Texas recently joined medical facilities all over the country in honoring their pharmacists by celebrating National Hospital and Health-System Pharmacy Week. The staff there noted how much the pharmacy profession has evolved in recent years. Pharmacists are experts on thousands of medications available, and physicians now commonly turn to them for advice on the best medications for a patient. Pharmacists also help monitor patient’s medication therapy and provide quality checks to detect and prevent harmful drug interactions and reactions. “Many consumers are not aware that pharmacists play a critical role in preventing medication errors, advising prescribers on the best drug choices and working directly with patients to ensure they understand how to use their medications safely and effectively,” said Blake Reynolds, director of pharmacy at WRMC. Hospital and health-system pharmacists are able to take on these enhanced patient-care roles because of a number of factors, including the deployment of highly trained, certified pharmacy technicians and new technologies like robotics that dispense medications.

Hospital admissions for adverse reactions from medications and illegal drugs increased by 117 percent between 1997 and 2008 for people between the ages of 45 and 64, according to a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The increase was primarily the result of hospitalizations from conditions related to drug-induced delirium; "poisoning" or overdose by opiate-based pain medicines; and withdrawal from narcotic or non-narcotic drugs. The AHRQ report also found that hospital admissions for drugs grew by 87 percent among people ages 85 and older. However, among adults ages 18 to 44, hospitalization for medications and illegal drugs declined by 11 percent over the study period.

Due to an ongoing U.S. shortage of the general anesthetic propofol, the drug has had to be obtained from overseas, leading a medical packing firm to make allergy warning labels available. The drug, distributed under the brand-name Diprivan, has been in short supply since two voluntary recalls from manufacturers last year. Propofol manufacturer APP Pharmaceuticals of Schaumberg Ill., obtained approval from the FDA to import and distribute Fresenius Propoven (propofol 1%) from Europe. However, the European-produced version is manufactured using peanut oil, while the U.S. product is made with soy. Medical packaging and labeling firm Medi-Dose of Ivyland, Pa., has issued a series of soy- and peanut-allergy warning labels to warn doctors and pharmacists using the drug, as there is now an issue with sensitivity to peanuts. Medi-Dose will provide labels to hospitals, pharmacies, and nursing departments. Pharmacists can print the labels as needed, and hospitals are able to download the label and design it to their liking.

Scientists have developed a new software program to ensure that new graduate doctors prescribe safely, starting with their first day on the wards. The SCRIPT (Standard Computerized Revalidation Instrument for Prescribing and Therapeutics) project involved a team of experts from the U.K.'s Aston University and Birmingham and Warwick Medical Schools that created an innovative, e-learning toolkit. SCRIPT will introduce 38 key modules that will reflect the basic needs of new doctors, enable them to undertake basic revision and reach minimum prescribing standards, and help them build upon existing skills for safe and rational prescribing. The Toolkit will be released in June 2011 on a staggered basis, with five modules expected to be live by the end of September 2010: Prescription Documentation, Medication Errors, Allergy and Anaphylaxis, Peri-operative Prescribing, and Dangerous Drugs. Professor John Marriott, SCRIPT Program Manager at Aston University in Birmingham, said, "Prescribing skills have been identified as a skill set of FY1 doctors that needs re-enforcement since pressures on junior doctor learning are immense, sub-optimal prescribing can impose a burden on public health and jeopardize patient safety. Improving the prescribing skills of doctors during their formative professional years will improve patient safety in the short term, and may bring long-term benefits in safe and rational prescribing."

Despite the economic downturn, the job market for pharmacists continues to be robust. For example, research conducted for the Connecticut Economic Digest found that the average hourly wage for pharmacists remains impressive and the overall employment outlook is better than most other fields. "Pharmacists have long played an important role in the health care industry," writes Sarah York, an economist with the labor department who authored the article. "With the increases in job responsibilities and the strong reliance the health care industry has on pharmacists, the job outlook remains strong." York credits much of this continued stability to the fact that the role of pharmacists in healthcare delivery continues to expand. Pharmacists now advise both physicians and patients, which requires them to have a vast knowledge of drug selection, proper dosage, and potential interactions. Although the job is not an easy one, employment for pharmacists is projected to grow faster than average through at least 2018 - at a rate of 17 percent. That growth, says York, is primarily due the needs of an aging population.

Reasearchers have found that rivastigmine (Exelon), did not have any beneficial effects as an adjunct to haloperidol (Haldol) in critically ill patients with delirium. In fact, the drug may have increased mortality, according to the results of their halted clinical trial. Only 104 of a planned 440 patients were enrolled in the trial before it was stopped due to a nonsignificant trend toward increased mortality with rivastigmine compared with placebo. Because of the lack of benefits and possible harm, "we do not recommend treatment of delirium with rivastigmine for patients in intensive care," the study authors wrote.

Each hospital uses different methods of surveillance to record incidents of bloodstream infections, and this hurts the quality of public reporting of infection rates, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study examined central line-associated bloodstream infections in 20 intensive care units which used CDC definitions for surveillance. The researchers compared these self-published rates with rates calculated using a computer algorithm that used the same definitions. The median rate using traditional surveillance was 3.3 infections per 1000 central-line days, but the computer algorithm calculated nine per 1000. Further, the center with the lowest rate by traditional surveillance actually had the highest rate by computer algorithm. Publishing infection rates is intended to improve safety, but the comparisons of different hospitals’ infection rates are less valid when there is no uniform method of surveillance, the study authors conclude.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will set aside $34 million for projects aimed at abolishing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The grants will be awarded to projects utilizing the strategies set forth in the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections. These projects are expected to improve patient care quality and expand HAI prevention efforts among hospitals, ambulatory treatment settings, and long-term care facilities. In collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the National Institutes of Health, AHRQ hopes to uncover why infections occur and find ways to improve antibiotic prescribing methods, delivery, communication, and teamwork among hospital staff to prevent those infections.

The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) recently awarded joint accreditation to two organizations- the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and VHA Inc. They are the first two organizations to receive this type of joint accredation for continuing healthcare education. ACCME, ACPE, and ANCC work together to reward organizations for offering team-focused education. This joint process decreases the administrative burdens for continuing education providers, as they can use one process to obtain three different accreditations. In order to be eligible, accreditation must already have been awarded by two of the three accreditors. It must also have a mission statement that highlights team-focused education for healthcare. Additionally, 25 percent or more of the organization's healthcare activities must be designed for teams.

Recent research suggests acetaminophen can cause a significant increase in blood pressure in patients with coronary artery disease. The study, led by Swiss researchers, found that although acetaminophen has been preferred over ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for patients with cardiovascular concerns, the drug may not be as safe as it has been thought to be, particularly in doses used for arthritis patients.