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Identifying the Problem and Facing the Challenge Head-On

In October 2006, the American Hospital Association invited key medical professionals together to discuss patient safety risks associated with enteral feeding systems. The challenge involved the problems with enteral misconnections and small-bore connectors.

Workforce shortages are nothing new to the pharmacy industry. In 2016, The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a 12% increased demand for pharmacy technician jobs.

Expiration dating starts as early as the FDA application process. The FDA requires new drug applicants to submit drug stability testing data along with recommended expiration dates and storage conditions at the same time they apply for FDA approval.

In the ever-changing hospital pharmacy environment, regulatory bodies and industry organizations like the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and Institute For Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) are making an effort to standardize guidelines for barcoding, unit-dose packaging and expiration dating. Clear standards of practice have shown reduced medication errors resulting in improved patient safety.

Unit-dose medication packaging has been a standard practice for hospital pharmacies since the late 1960s. Since then, pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers have consolidated, resulting in fewer unit-dose drugs being available to hospital pharmacies. This directly caused price increases on unit-dose products, frequent backorders and more limited options.

How Beverly Hospital discovered an annual cost savings opportunity of more than $200,000.

Beverly Hospital, a small community health system with three hospitals and 340 beds, discovered a new strategy for reducing drug purchasing costs and increasing operational efficiency by collaborating with Yankee Alliance, a regional group purchasing organization (GPO), and Safecor Health, an FDA-registered unit-dose repackaging vendor.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires that manufacturers change their product labels from international units (IU) to metric units of measurement — micrograms (mcg) or milligrams (mg). This comes as a result of the FDA’s final rule, “Food Labeling: Revision of the Nutrition Supplement Facts Labels,” published on May 27, 2016.

Pharmacies can expect to start seeing these label changes come through on all over-the-counter (OTC) fat-soluble vitamin A, D and E products. We understand that this change can be difficult when trying to determine the metric equivalent for IUs. For a safer transition to metric labeling, Safecor Health will begin including both the IU and metric measurements on its labels, when possible.

In-house packaging often seems like a convenient option but it likely comes with a hefty price. We tend to forget about a lot of the underlying expenses -- like equipment and labor. Our infographic below provides a great example of what the true cost of in-house packaging really looks like.

Robotic pharmacy systems are great for those hospital pharmacies looking to prevent medication errors, reduce pharmacy labor and lower medication inventory. But there’s a downside: Packaging and restocking these robots can be tricky. So how do you fill a pharmacy robotic system without it being too time-consuming?

Check out our infographic for some key consideration points for three ways to fill a robotic pharmacy system: