By James T. Wagner

 Choosing a vendor to certify your engineering controls has become even more important as choices in engineering controls have grown to include laminar airflow workstations (LAFWs), cleanrooms, biological safety cabinets (BSCs), compounding aseptic isolators (CAIs), and 

By Lou Diorio, RPh, and Dave Thomas, RPh, MBA

Recent world events have created enormous pressures throughout the US economy with the health care industry being particularly hard hit. As the nation pulls itself out of the most significant economic downturn since the Great Depression, many new challenges for health care providers have arisen. The newly unemployed and growing underinsured are

By Ernest R. Anderson, Jr, RPh, MS, Martin J. Goldberg, RPh, MBA, and Margaret Sipe, RN, MS

The main mission of any institution-based pharmacy is to get the right medication to the right patient in a safe and timely manner. Today, for many hospitals and health systems this mission includes the incorporation of bar code technology to verify every dose of medication.
Bar code medication administration (BCMA) is the

By Noel C. Hodges, RPh, MBA

As the need for bar coded medication administration (BCMA) becomes an increasing reality for many hospitals, choosing the best route to bar code and unit dose your drug inventory can be a significant challenge. To accomplish this, pharmacy has three primary options available to them: purchase medication from

A Conversation with Patricia C. Kienle, RPh, MPA, FASHP

Patricia C. Kienle, RPh, MPA, FASHP
Director of Accreditation and Medication Safety
Cardinal Health Pharmacy Services

P&P: The terms high-alert, high-risk, and hazardous medications are sometimes used interchangeably. Is this a good idea?

Patricia Kienle: Definitely not. Years ago, we often lumped everything together in the high-risk category. However, ISMP and other organizations suggested using the term “high alert” for