What is the primary purpose of continuous quality improvement (CQI)?

A punishment culture will reduce the number of errors reported (not the number that occur) and will keep the CQI process from improving on areas in the system that need help. As a result, more medication errors are likely to occur.

Face-to-face communication is the most effective form of communication.

Quality assurance practices, as the name suggests, are put in place to ensure high quality and safety during all pharmacy operations. The practices contain the prevention, identification, and change implementation concerning all processes related to pharmacy practice that may be unsafe or ineffective. Generally, these practices are centered on medication use and inventory. Quality assurance should be practiced by all pharmacy personnel.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).

The pharmacy is not permitted to accept professional samples.

MAR stands for medication administration report, CSAR stands for controlled substance ad- ministration report, POS stands for physician or- der sheet, and TAR stands for treatment administration report.

PPE is required for all compounding procedures and differs based on the type of compounding and the drug products being compounded. When using PPE, it is important to follow a specific order to reduce the potential of contamination. In general, you should work from "dirtiest" to "cleanest" parts of the PPE attire. For example, you wouldn't put shoe covers on after putting on your sterile gloves. Follow the general order listed here and make sure to check the procedures outlined by your specific pharmacy. 1. Remove outer garments, jewelry, make up, artificial nails, piercings, etc. before putting on any PPE. 2. Start with shoe and hair covers including any facial hair. 3. Put on the a face mask or face shield. 4. Wash your hands with appropriate hand washing technique. 5. Use a compounding specific gown. 6. Don sterile gloves and use alcohol to continue to sterile your gloved hands between drug products.

Augmentin suspension should be refrigerated and it lasts for ten days.

USP 797 addresses sterile compounding, and USP 795 deals with non-sterile compounding.

Information that is obtained through MERP is used to report the medication error; understand the medication error; provide additional knowledge of the problem; evaluate data that have been collected; develop educational tools to identify means to prevent the medication error from occurring; provide confidential consulting services to health care systems; cooperate with legislative and regulatory bodies, health care practitioners, health care institutions, regulatory and accrediting agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry; communicate information to consumers, employers, and health care providers; and provide a voluntary reporting program.

An organization’s infection control policy re- quires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention be notified if an employee is exposed to pathogens while at work.

The Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) committee is responsible for developing a formulary or approved list of medications to be used within a hospital or organization.

The NCPDP Processor ID Number (BIN) is a six-digit number that health plans can use to process electronic pharmacy claims if they do not use pharmacy benefit cards with a magnetic stripe. Plans that use cards with a magnetic stripe should use the recommended American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Issue Identifier Number (IIN) for processing electronic pharmacy claims. ANSI issues IIN numbers. NCPDP issues the Processor ID Number (BIN).