American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
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Am J Health Syst Pharm · Jun 2001
Policies on documentation and disciplinary action in hospital pharmacies after a medication error.
Hospital pharmacies were surveyed about policies on medication error documentation and actions taken against pharmacists involved in an error. The survey was mailed to 500 randomly selected hospital pharmacy directors in the United States. Data were collected on the existence of medication error reporting policies, what types of errors were documented and how, and hospital demographics. ⋯ Many respondents said errors that caused harm (42%) or death (40%) to the patient were documented in the personnel file, but 34% of hospitals did not document errors in the personnel file regardless of error type. Nearly three fourths of respondents differentiated between errors caught and not caught before a medication leaves the pharmacy and between errors caught and not caught before administration to the patient. More emphasis is needed on documentation of medication errors in hospital pharmacies.
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Am J Health Syst Pharm · May 2001
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: security and privacy requirements.
The security and privacy requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and their implications for pharmacy are discussed. HIPAA was enacted to improve the portability of health care insurance for persons leaving jobs. A section of the act encourages the use of electronic communications for health care claims adjudication, mandates the use of new standard code sets and transaction sets, and establishes the need for regulations to protect the security and privacy of individually identifiable health care information. ⋯ Costs of implementation nationwide are estimated to exceed $8 billion. The health care community has two years from the finalization of each regulation to comply with that regulation. The security and privacy requirements of HIPAA will require pharmacies to review their practices regarding the storage, use, and disclosure of protected health care information.