I feel very humbled and privileged to have been invited to speak at the upcoming 4th Annual Intravenous & Parenteral Nutrition (IVPN) Symposium-From Evidence to Practice that is taking place at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi in November!
Heading to Oklahoma City today for meetings at the Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital tomorrow. Really looking forward to discussing how IV automation is proven to significantly reduce or even eliminate the “human error” component in the hospital pharmacy workflow, ultimately saving countless lives of the most vulnerable patients for preventable medication errors…our babies and children.
My good friend Grace Magedman, who has been the Director of Pharmacy Services at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County for many years, sums it up best when she says, “IV automation in pediatric pharmacy practice is an essential tool in delivering the safest and most accurate doses, especially for our tiniest patients. We must no longer consider it optional in the way we deliver pharmaceutical care.”
Headed to the city of angels to share the tragic story of what happened to my beautiful little angel for a very important documentary being produced by my friend Angela Rei. More importantly, I am also sharing the vital lessons that have been learned since Emily’s death from a very preventable intravenous (IV) medication error in 2006.
It’s been 12 long years since her passing, but as Emily’s daddy, I now believe her short life here on earth was truly meant to be the catalyst for positive change, ultimately saving countless lives! In all of the work I have been doing over the years in healthcare with the Emily Jerry Foundation, I feel so blessed to have been a first hand witness to all of these positive changes that are actually occurring…I could not be more grateful!
Please consider making a small contribution today to the production of this documentary!
Weight-based dosing of any medication has always been a primary concern for the pediatric patient population. This is especially true with the tiniest of babies coming into this world weighing as little as 400 grams. Unfortunately, due to their variability in weight, it also makes them the most vulnerable patient population for tragic preventable medication errors. This is why the accuracy of the compounded sterile IV (intravenous) medications can be a matter of life and death for babies and children, and also exactly why ACCURACY means absolutely EVERYTHING when it comes to the preparation of each and every vital medication in the hospital pharmacy.
With all of this said, I am so very pleased to announce this exciting new partnership between the Emily Jerry Foundation and ARxIUM (www.ARxIUM.com). Through this partnership we are committed to eliminating IV compounding errors by 2021 by implementing available clinically proven technologies that produce safe and accurate medications and improve internal processes and training for pharmacy staff.
You can learn more about this new life-saving medication safety initiative that is currently being developed by the Emily Jerry Foundation and ARxIUM by reading this press release.
Ever since establishing the Emily Jerry Foundation in 2009, it’s always been the extremely important to me to always be striving to affect positive change in how clinician/caregivers, view, respond, and subsequently learn, from preventable medical errors when they occur. This is precisely why I felt so privileged to be invited, by the Student Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (pictured below), to speak at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy yesterday! We had a great turnout comprised of all of our future leaders in healthcare!!
Emily’s Legacy Continues to Live On…Ray Sipherd from CNBC Hits it Out of the Park!!
A few weeks ago I did an interview with Ray Sipherd from CNBC where we discussed my daughter Emily’s tragic story and the subsequent work that is being done by the Emily Jerry Foundation to save lives and stop these types of tragedies before they happen.
We also talked in depth about how preventable medical error is an issue that affects each and every one us, due to the fact that we all receive healthcare. During our conversation, I had also explained to Ray that I did not understand why most people in the general public are not even aware that preventable medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, even though it had been first identified by Dr. John James’ sentinel study in the Journal of Patient Safety in 2013.
That said, I would like to genuinely thank Ray from the bottom of my heart, for writing such a great article and helping to get the word out about this vital issue!
Felt very grateful to have the opportunity to speak at the Technical Education Center Osceola (TECO) today to a number of great Pharmacy Technician and Medical Assistant students about preventable medical error. After a very successful and productive week at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) Annual Midyear Clinical Meeting, I’m really looking forward to getting back home to Chagrin Falls and sleeping in my own bed!
The ASHP (American Society of Health System Pharmacists) Annual Midyear Clinical Meeting has been absolutely incredible this year! It’s the largest gathering of pharmacy professionals in world with more than 25,000 in attendance. Every year I am surrounded by so many of the pharmacy experts, many of which who have helped mentor me over the past decade, who are just as passionate about medication safety and saving lives from preventable medication errors as I am! Today I was honored to deliver a speech titled “Raising the Bar for IV Compounding Technology!”
I felt very privileged to be asked to give the keynote address and to participate in this very important Roundtable on Patient Safety in Washington D.C. last week! The meeting was organized to bring together key stakeholders, leading pharmacy experts, representatives from the FDA, Joint Commission, AHA, etc., to review and discuss the last five years in hospital medication safety and clinical practices. The primary objective at the end of the day, which I felt was definitely accomplished, was to have found where further improvement can be made in hospital compounding, discuss possible refinements in best practices, and to reach a consensus on the leading practice recommendations. By all of us rallying together to advance patient safety overall in a very well organized forum like this, I really believe that, together, we will ultimately save countless lives from preventable medication errors!
The following is the press release that went out last week over the PRnewswire:
Five Years After NECC, Experts Review the State of Hospital Compounding and Patient Safety
The Emily Jerry Foundation is determined to help make our nation’s, world renowned, medical facilities safer for everyone, beginning with our babies and children. We are accomplishing this very important objective by focusing on increasing public awareness of key patient safety related issues and identifying technology and best practices that are proven to minimize the “human error” component of medicine. Through our ongoing efforts The Emily Jerry Foundation is working hard to save lives every day.
Last Updated: October 31, 2018 by Nick Pietravoia
Pharmacy Technicians University Now Available for Individuals!
I am also very thrilled to announce that RxTOOLKIT ® has actually dedicated this vital training program in the memory of my beautiful little girl Emily! As a result, they have pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds from PTU directly to the Emily Jerry Foundation!
A big thank you goes out to my good friend Chuck DiTrapano at RxTOOLKIT for this awesome commitment to EJF! Whether trainees will be on a site or a hospital pharmacy, these learning materials are sure to help improve our techncians skills! Please visit the following link to learn more about their true sentiments for helping the Emily Jerry Foundation honor my daughter’s short life here on earth by focusing this comprehensive educational program for pharmacy technicians on preventing tragedies before they actually happen…ultimately saving countless lives in the process! https://rxtoolkitelearning.com/about/dedication/
The following is from the official announcement posted on the RxTOOLKIT blog at medsafetyonline.org:
“This online competency-based curriculum provides all of the tools and information needed to prepare techs for the job and the national certification exam, whereby individuals are also able to access something like this free PTCB practice test from Medical Hero to help further with their studies and any examinations they wish to take.
Today, pharmacy technicians are increasingly important members of the pharmacy team. Skilled pharmacy technicians are critical for the economic and efficient function of a pharmacy. However, training requirements for pharmacy technicians change often and are becoming more complex, creating a shortage of qualified pharmacy technicians.
In such a scenario, partnering up with licensed suppliers like Impact Health Group (impacth.co.uk) could prove extremely beneficial in the short (as well as long run). These firms specialize in distribution of pharmaceutical and medical products and services. In ensuring training and certification of pharmacy technicians, health-based organizations get professionals with the core competencies required to safely perform the full scope of practice as well as the right attitude for advancing success. core competencies required to safely perform the full scope of practice as well as the right attitude for advancing success.
Pharmacy Technicians University™ takes the headache out of technician training and compliance with convenient, cost-effective, online training including real-world scenarios and rich media content.
Most importantly, trained, competent, and reliable techs can drastically reduce any facility’s overall medication error rate.”
We couldn’t agree more! Online learning is a great resource for technicians and other healthcare professionals to learn. If they use the sources already provided as well as this source here for online study tips then they are sure to succeed! More importantly, I really want to thank Chuck and his team at RxTOOLKIT for helping to significantly improve medication safety by helping to ensure the core competency of our nation’s pharmacy technicians.
Follow this link to read the whole announcement: http://medsafetyonline.org/rxtoolkit-and-trc-healthcare-announce-partnership-to-expand-availability-of-best-in-class-online-pharmacy-technician-training-program/
They are offering two separate programs, one for the retail practice setting and another including 30 additional hours of specialized training essential for institutional pharmacy. Both programs prepare techs for the job and also to take the national certification exam.
Please contact [email protected] or visit www.RxTOOLKITeLEARNING.com for more information or individual purchase.
[TRC ® Healthcare, Pharmacy Technicians University™, and PTU 101™ are trademarks of Therapeutic Research Center. Copyright © 2018 Therapeutic Research Center (TRC) All Rights Reserved. / RxTOOLKIT ® and RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™ are trademarks of HMMRx Inc. Copyright © 2018 RxTOOLKIT, HMMRx Inc. All Rights Reserved. ]