Editor's Note Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health who has been monitoring drug shortages for over 20 years, spoke to AP News in June of her concerns. Currently, the situation is worse than ever, with total active shortages hitting an all-time high of 323 (with 48…
Editor's Note Shortages of active drugs in the US have reached a new record, according to an April 12 CNN report on data from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. The two organizations have been tracking this data since 2001, the CNN report says.…
Editor's Note Amid a decline in the financial performance of academic medical centers (AMCs), McKinsey surveyed 100 of these institutions about what actions they are taking to improve, according to an April 12 report in Becker’s Hospital Review. According to the Becker’s article, the top 10 “operational levers” indicated by…
Editor's Note The ransomware group behind a recent cyberattack on one of the nation’s largest health systems has its sights set on hospitals, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned February 27. According to a report in Chief Healthcare Executive one day later, systems were…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 19, announced that it has revised its Medication Compounding (MC) chapter for home care organizations and the Medication Compounding Certification (MDC) program, which is available to accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and home care pharmacy organizations. Among the revisions: Revising the requirements to…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 13, updated prescribing information for all opioid pain medications, including requiring all packaging to have updated labeling and safety information. This includes stating that: for both immediate-release (IR) and extended release/long acting (ER/LA) opioid pain medications, the risk of overdose…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 25 identified the recall by Baxter Healthcare Corporation of its Abacus Order Entry and Calculation Software application as Class I, the most serious. The Abacus software app can translate a physician’s order into a compounded solution. The recall was initiated…