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Upcoming Meetings

Meetings of the SWIPA Board:

The SWIPA Board of Directors will meet on the second Tuesday of each month at 7am at JoJo’s Restaurant on US 41 North.  Meetings are scheduled for October 10^th and November 14th.  Board members should contact SWIPA President Derek Green at Wal-Mart Pharmacy in Boonville at 897-0089 if they cannot attend.

Continuing Education:

Tuesday, September 26^th:  Pfizer will sponsor speaker Ryan Sherer, MD, who will deliver a presentation titled “Inhaled Insulin: Changing the Diabetes Experience.”  The meeting will be held at Biaggi’s in Evansville.  The meeting and dinner will begin at 6:30pm with the lecture beginning at 7:00pm.  RSVP to Amy Decker at 1-888-733-2006 ext. 40612—leave your name and work location.

Tuesday, October 10^th:  GlaxoSmithKline will sponsor a dinner program at 6:30pm at The Loft at Marina Pointe.  The topic will be new guidelines for combination therapy with diabetes.  RSVP to Derek at WalMart in Boonville at 897-0089 no later than Friday, October 6^th if you would like to attend.

Wednesday, October 25^th:  SWIPA will sponsor speaker Tom Wilson, Purdue University Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, who will provide us with a law update.  The meeting will take place at 6:30pm at Kipplee’s Party House on Division Street in Evansville.  Seating is limited to the first 45 reservations.  RSVP to Brian Newton at CVS on Red Bank Road at 424-4811 no later than Monday, October 23^rd.

Thursday, November 9^th:  Bristol Myers Squibb will sponsor a speaker who will detail us on Emsam at 6:30pm at Lorenzo’s Bread’s on Evansville’s East Side.  RSVP to Derek at WalMart in Boonville at 897-0089 no later than Tuesday, November 7^th if you plan to attend.

Chantix:  A meeting is currently in the works to cover the new smoking-cessation agent.  Details will follow via a fax on the SWIPA Hotline or will be posted on the SWIPA Website.

Officers Needed

SWIPA is in need of members willing to serve the Association in roles of President and members of the Board of Directors.  You may find the experience is very rewarding and not nearly as difficult as you might expect.  We have a large membership, yet relatively few of us have served as officers or on the Board.  If you have ideas on how you’d like to see SWIPA grow or things we could do in the community, please contact Derek Green at WalMart in Boonville at 897-0089.  Experience is not required, passion for our profession is preferred. 

Medication Reconciliation—What’s That?

I’m sure the hands are going up in the hospital pharmacies right now—our hospital colleagues know what Medication Reconciliation is and what it means to their patients.  The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) National Patient Safety Goal 8 is to “accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care.”

Hmm... that’s a simple statement, but how will it be implemented?  Have those of you in retail noticed more calls from our local hospitals asking for med profiles on your patients?  This is a direct effect of the hospitals changing procedures to comply with the requirements of Patient Safety Goal 8.  Whenever a patient is admitted, transferred, or discharged from a healthcare organization that receives accreditation from JCAHO, that organization must reconcile and make sure in a timely fashion that the med list for the patient is correct!   

All of this means retail pharmacies should expect to have more communication with the hospitals, both providing current medication listings and receiving updated listings from the hospitals when the patients leave.  Demonstration projects to utilize electronic medical records are being tested right now in large metropolitan areas of Indiana, but full implementation of these records is likely years away. 

DEA Requires More Training for Pseudoephedrine

The DEA just released training materials that pharmacies can use to train employees on the new restrictions related to the sale of ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine products.  As of September 30, 2006, retailers must train their employees on the new restrictions in order to continue selling these products.  The training materials consist of a short PowerPoint presentation. Retailers must use the DEA materials to train their employees.  However, retailers may supplement the training materials with additional materials of their own.  The DEA training materials are posted on their website at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/meth/index.html.

But...

Indiana law is currently more restrictive than federal law when it comes to the limits on the amounts that can be purchased, so those rules still apply.  The Indiana law governing sales of pseudoephedrine can be found at IC 35-48-4-14.7. 

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Last modified: September 24, 2006