Mitigating or reducing the risk of medication harm is a global policy priority. But evidence reflecting preventable medication harm in medical care and the factors that derive this harm remain unknown. In a study published in BMC Medicine, the researchers aimed to quantify the prevalence, severity, and type of preventable medication harm across medical care settings. The study findings confirm …
The Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program partners with pharmacy providers to manage the COVID-19 vaccination process, reducing the workload for SNF administrator and jurisdictional health departments by coordinating scheduling, vaccine cold chain management, patient counseling, and vaccine administration. In the first month of the program, more than one million SNF residents and staff members in CMS-certified SNFs received on-site …
Nearly 1.5 million Americans are being vaccinated every day against COVID-19. Allergic reactions have led some to question if they should get the vaccine, and scant data from clinical trials for the currently approved vaccines in vulnerable populations means we don’t fully know how those with certain conditions will react. In an interview on MedPage Today, Dr. Barbara Alexander, M.D., …
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been in use for more than 2 decades and are proven useful as medications of choice for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and many other GI indications. A recent study of 758 hospitalized patients, mean age 80.3 years, revealed that 232 patients were receiving PPIs; 195 (84%) were prescribed inappropriately. After reviewing the comorbidity and prescribed …
As millions of Americans struggle to recover from COVID and millions more scramble for the protection offered by vaccines, U.S. health officials may be overlooking an unsettling subgroup of survivors: those who get infected more than once! Identifying how common reinfection is among people who contracted COVID as well as how quickly they become vulnerable and why carries important implications …
The emerging variants the CDC is closely monitoring have mutations in the virus genome that alter the characteristics and cause the virus to act differently in ways that are significant to public health (i.e., causes more severe disease, spreads more easily between humans, requires different treatments, changes the effectiveness of current vaccines). It is important to understand that genetic mutations …
Despite decades of research, improving health care safety remains a global priority. Individual studies have demonstrated links between staff engagement and care quality, but until now, any relationship between engagement and patient safety outcomes has been more speculative. A recent study was published in the Journal of Patient Safety, where systematic searches of Medline, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Embase, Cochrane, Library, and …
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession have negatively affected many people’s mental health and created new barriers for people already suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. During the pandemic, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, a share that has been largely consistent, up from one in …
Populations such as healthcare workers (HCW) that are unable to practice physical distancing are at high risk of acquiring Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). In these cases pharmacological prophylaxis would be a solution to reduce severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) transmission. Hydroxychloroquine has in vitro antiviral properties against SARS CoV-2. A recent study was sought to determine the efficacy and …
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and rapidly escalated into a global pandemic. Severe illness of COVID-19 predominantly occurs in older people and in individuals with underlying medical comorbidities. Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in the aging population. The majority of people living with …
