Patient Safety & Immunizations
Getting the right drug to the right person at the right time has long been the mantra of practicing pharmacists everywhere. Both safe dispensing and safe use are critical to the best outcomes for your patients.
This section links you to specific resources that support you in addressing and advancing the patient safety culture within your organization.
Immunization data is now in the EQuIPP® Dashboard! This section also provides resources necessary to provide support to your pharmacy team to utilize the immunization data in EQuIPP® effectively.
Immunizations
APhA Immunization Center- News Resources and more
CDC Flu Season Toolkit Digital Media Toolkit for the 2023-2024 flu season
HCP Fight Flu Toolkit- for Health Care Professionals, guides and materials
NCPA Immunizations page- Documents, certifications, and Pharmacist resources
Pharmacy Times Flu Resource Center- Flu articles, clinical trials and videos
Immunization Measures Explained
Patient Safety
Pharmacy Measures
• Medication Management in Persons with Asthma (Displayed as: Medication Management: Asthma)
• Antidepressant Medication Management (Displayed as: Antidepressant Management);
• Concurrent Use of Opioids and Benzodiazepines (Displayed as: Concurrent Use of Opioids and BZDs)
• The Adherence to Antipsychotic Medications for Individuals with Schizophrenia (SAA) measure (Displayed as: Adherence to Antipsychotics)
• IEHP Asthma Medication Ratio- (Displayed as IEHP AMR)
• Polypharmacy – Use of Anticholinergic Medications in Older Adults- (Displayed as Polypharmacy Anticholinergics)
• Polypharmacy – CNS-Active Medications in Older Adults (Displayed as Polypharmacy- CNS Active)
• Use of Opioids at High Dosage in Persons Without Cancer- (Displayed as Use of Opioids at High Dosage)
• Use of Multiple Concurrent Antipsychotics in Children and Adolescents- (Displayed as Concurrent Antipsychotics)
Specialty Pharmacy Measures
• Adherence to Non-Infused Disease-Modifying Agents Used to Treat Multiple Sclerosis (Specialty) (Displayed as: Multiple Sclerosis Adherence)
• Proportion of Days Covered: Antiretroviral (Specialty) (Displayed as: Antiretroviral PDC)
• Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C - Completion of Therapy (Specialty) (Displayed as: Hep C: Completion of Therapy)
Statin Use Educational Resources
1. Statin Use in Persons with Diabetes (SUPD)
This measure is intended to monitor the percentage of patients with diabetes aged 40 -75 who have filled a statin medication or statin combination product. Patients with diabetes who take statin medications could lower their risk of developing heart disease and this measure supports treatment improvement for patients with diabetes.
2. Statin Therapy for Patients with Cardiovascular Disease (SPC Received Statin Therapy)
This measure evaluates patients diagnosed with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) who have received a high or moderate-intensity statin medication. Statin therapy has the capability to reduce cardiovascular events and mortality for patients who receive these treatments.
3. High and Moderate-Intensity Statin Table (This is a quick table to review)
Also available to view is a more detailed look via the 2018 Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol from the American College of Cardiology.
4. A Note From Your Pharmacist: Using a Statin For Your Patient with Diabetes (Fax template from TRC/The Pharmacist's Letter, requires subscription to The Pharmacist's Letter for access)
Patient Education Resources
Patient education and counseling is a key aspect to working with patients who come into your pharmacy. PQS will post education resources that can be provided to patients and/or caregivers to assist in addressing various disease states.
1. Patient Letter - Statin Use for Patients with Diabetes - helping patients address their diabetes care can be complex. This primer may help patients understand this disease state and therapies to help improve their care.
2. Patient Letter - Use of High-Risk Medications - Need help suggesting a change in therapy for a high-risk medication? This letter may help patients to discuss alternative therapies with their prescriber.
3. Using a Statin for Your Patient with Diabetes (Fax Letter) - Looking for a template to communicate with prescribers about addressing statin therapy for patients with diabetes? This template fax form from Pharmacists Letter can help to start the conversation. In order to build a relationship with the provider, be sure to have a conversation with the patient prior to initiating a fax. If the patient does not want/cannot tolerate a statin, a fax is not recommended.
Peer Review Resource Center
Don't have time to read the monthly journals filling your inbox and mailbox? We curate a selection of material to keep you up to date on the latest medication use quality information from the academic literature.
1. American Geriatrics Society 2015 Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults By the American Geriatrics Society 2015 Beers Criteria Update Expert Panel (JAGS).
2. How to use the American Geriatrics Society 2015 Beers Criteria - A Guide for Patients, Clinicians, Health Systems, and Payers. this article is provided on how the criteria are intended to be used and recommendations for implementation to achieve this effect(JAGS).
3. Reducing Inappropriate BZD Prescriptions in older adults through direct patient education (JAMA).
4. More support for scaling back sedative-hypnotic use. These meds may not cause a disproportionate number of ER visits for adverse events, but the severity of the events in seniors is more pronounced compared to younger adults, resulting in more hospitalizations (JAMA).
5. Toward a Better Understanding of High-Risk Medications in the Elderly. Pharmacies can play a role in reducing the use of high-risk medications and improving quality measure scores (AJMC).
6. Impact of a medication therapy management intervention targeting medications associated with falling: Results of a pilot study. While this study specifically looked at reducing falls, it also considers how to effectively request a change in therapy with a prescriber.(JAPhA).
AHRQ Patient Safety Primers
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Patient Safety Network provides a wealth of quality and safety information via their series of Patient Safety Primers. Those specific to medication use quality and safety include:
Medication Errors
Medication Reconciliation
The Role of the Patient in Safety
Adverse Events After Hospital Discharge
Other excellent primers to address medication safety from a systems standpoint include Systems Approach, Root Cause Analysis, and Safety Culture.
Medication Safety Tools from ISMP
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has released free research-based Medication Safety Tools. ISMP is a non-profit organization focused on educating healthcare professionals and consumers about safe medication practices.
Alliance for Patient Medication Safety (APMS)
The Alliance for Patient Medication Safety, which is a federally listed patient safety organization is your partner in quality improvement. Click this link to learn more or sign up.
APMS® provides ONE portal for all of your medication safety and quality reporting needs. Whether you are a community or compounding pharmacy, your staff can easily report near misses and errors that reach the patient. Enjoy the ability to record medication mishaps as well as adverse events, and have easy access to MEDWATCH and VERS (vaccine/ immunization) forms all in one spot.
They can help you:
- Establish a quality-conscious workflow.
- Encourage the adoption of a fair and positive culture.
- Identify, collect, report, and analyze your quality-related events.
PQC™ is brought to you by your State Pharmacy Association.
*Please note that some links below may require a subscription to Pharmacists' Letter or other websites for content.