American journal of hospital pharmacy
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The development and implementation of a code that enables pharmacists to document their clinical interventions in the hospital's computerized patient records is described. To allow data to be entered in patient records from terminals throughout the hospital that are linked to the mainframe computer, a code was developed to summarize each pharmacist recommendation. The coded information is added to the computer entry for the specific drug requiring intervention. ⋯ An additional 17 (6%) of the interventions resulted from physicians' requests for pharmacists' recommendations. In addition to review of all pharmacist clinical interventions, this system allows review of a specific target drug to determine compliance with institutional drug-use guidelines. Through use of the computer program developed at this hospital, information that documents pharmacists' clinical services can be entered directly into patients' records on the hospital's mainframe computer system and retrieved as useful reports.
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Historical Article
An overview of the FDA publication Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations.
The history, purpose, and content of FDA's Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (the "Orange Book") are described. When cost guidelines established in the 1970s for Medicare reimbursement prompted most states to permit generic drug product selection, an official list of interchangeable drug products was needed. Regulations for determining bioavailability and bioequivalence were published in 1977, and FDA first published Approved Drug Products in 1980. ⋯ Monthly Cumulative Supplements are issued. The Orange Book contains public information and advice, but it is not an official national compendium; FDA has no position on state regulation of drug product selection by pharmacists. The equivalence evaluations do not relieve practitioners from exercising care in prescribing and dispensing products according to patients' individual needs.