Six years ago, a letter to the editor was published in The New England Journal of Medicine from a physician who suggested using metal detectors to prevent the risk of injuries from metal objects during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Unfortunately, his suggestion was spurred by the tragic death of a six-year-old child in New York [...]
Continue reading " Systems Thinking: Tapping into Staff Creativity to Unleash Innovation "
I Ahe Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) is a statutory public-private partnership composed of legislators, governments, and businesses in the U.S. and Canada, namely the northwestern states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and the Western Canadian provinces British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.
COLD-fX Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., based in New York, has launched COLD-fX, a dietary supplement intended to strengthen the immune system. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of CV Technologies of Edmonton, Canada.
Our work in drug utilization evaluation (DUE) and monitoring continues to be robust. For example, although we use the proprietary CPOE system known as “LastWord,” we continue to make specific recommendations almost monthly with respect to pharmacists’ documentation and deletion of certain warnings on drug allergies.
Continue reading " Toot Your Own Horn Two: Medication Use Evaluation "
In the April 2006 issue of P&T, I discussed the work of one of our key committees at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, namely, the medication quality subcommittee of the P&T committee. As I noted then, I have had the privilege, for many years, of chairing this committee, which is staffed by senior members of our [...]
As many regular readers of P&T know, I often scan the literature of reports from the private sector and select some of these for my editorials. Recently, a report from the national BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA) crossed my desk and appears to have important implications for P&T committee members in different sectors.
We found that among Medicaid children in a managed care program, who were assigned to a primary care case manager physician, up-to-date immunization rates at 18 months were still low. Age appropriate immunization rates were even lower. The temporal patterns of immunizations indicated that compliance with the immunization schedule faltered after the second month of [...]
Continue reading " TIMELINESS OF IMMUNIZATIONS OF CHILDREN IN A MEDICAID PRIMARY: DISCUSSION "
