Practice-enhancing publications about the medication-use process in 2023.

Purpose: This article identifies, prioritizes, and summarizes published literature on the medication-use process (MUP) from calendar year 2023 that can impact health-system pharmacy daily practice. The MUP is the foundational system that provides the framework for safe medication utilization within the healthcare environment. The MUP is defined in this article as having the following components: prescribing/transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring.

Practice-enhancing publications about the medication-use process in 2022.

Purpose: This article identifies, prioritizes, and summarizes published literature on the medication-use process (MUP) from calendar year 2022 that can impact health-system pharmacy daily practice. The MUP is the foundational system that provides the framework for safe medication utilization within the healthcare environment. The MUP is defined in this article as having the following components: prescribing/transcribing, dispensing, administration, and monitoring.

Development of optimized adult epidural infusion preparations to reduce waste and improve operational efficiency.

Purpose: Despite national recommendations to standardize infusion concentrations, there is minimal guidance on institution-specific strategies and outcomes related to epidural infusion concentration standardization and optimization. The purpose of this project is to identify the optimal compounded preparation for use in select adult epidural infusions and assess the impact on drug and fluid utilization and cost savings if the designated preparation is adopted.

Methods: A previously validated tool, the VERB (vial, exchange, rate, and bag) analysis, was applied to epidural infusion pump administration data to identify preparations optimized for efficient supply and resource utilization at a large academic medical center.

Equitable and timely access to outpatient COVID-19 treatment: A review of centralized workflow implementation at an integrated health system.

Background: During the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care entities had to adapt to rapidly changing research and best practices in disease prevention and treatment to maintain the delivery of high-quality patient care. Prompt interdisciplinary efforts amongst physician, pharmacist, nursing, and information technology teammates are needed to develop robust centralized strategies to allocate and administer COVID-19 therapies in the ambulatory setting.

Objective: The objective of this analysis is to demonstrate the impact of a system-wide, centralized workflow on referral times and treatment outcomes for COVID-19 infected patients in the ambulatory setting.