A  great many of you have recently participated in PP&P’s annual surveys on the State of Pharmacy Compounding (results published the April issue) and the State of Pharmacy Automation (results forthcoming in the August issue), as well as the second annual CriticalPoint USP <797> Compliance Study. While filling out surveys can sometimes be tedious, the end result in all of these cases is a collection of valuable and telling data that provides interesting insight into current institutional pharmacy practices.  

For example, did you know that hospitals in states that require adherence to USP General Chapter <797> on sterile compounding also have the highest rates of compliance? This may seem like an obvious correlation, but simply having a mandate in place does not guarantee acknowledgement. Rather we see this as a sign of encouragement; regulatory bodies are working in concert with expert practitioners to enforce practices and policies that serve everyone, including the patient, the pharmacist, and the CEO.

The value and reach of pharmacy technology and automation continues to grow, and pharmacy’s emphasis on safe, clear, and responsible medication compounding remains strong. Therefore, attaining a deep understanding of how pharmacy practitioners engage and utilize these mechanisms, as well as how they affect pharmacy practice on the front lines, is one of our primary goals at PP&P. Because medication safety will always be at the forefront of any hospital pharmacy practice, it is our hope that the collective information gathered through these surveys will enrich your own. Please continue to express your concerns, challenges, and successes, and we will do our best to provide you with the answers you need.

All the best,
R. Mitchell Halvorsen
Publisher

/> P.S. As we do each year upon completion of our annual State of Pharmacy Automation survey, we selected one entry at random to be the grand prizewinner. This year’s winner is Steven Kastendieck, RPh, MS! Steven is the pharmacy operations manager and PGY 1 residency program director at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. As grand prizewinner, Steven will receive a 16 GB iPad!

We would like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s State of Pharmacy Automation survey and encourage you to continue to support this important benchmarking endeavor. Be sure to thoroughly review the dedicated State of Pharmacy Automation issue when it comes out this August.