11th Annual Conference Report, Part II (as published in October PPO)

Day 3, August 15

The morning session began with a presentation titled “Patient Safety Considerations When Purchasing Pharmaceutical Products” by Michael Cohen, R.Ph., MS, FASHP and President of Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.  This session was sponsored on an independent basis by a grant from Diamond Sponsor, Cardinal Health. 

This 1.5 hour lecture covered many of the products that have caused problems on the patient floors due to a myriad of aspects including, readability of the label in use, expression of concentration and strength, location of concentration/strength, icons and “corporate dress,” expression of drug name, packaging design, carton labeling, look alike containers, use of color, including color coding, color matching, and color differentiation.  He spoke of the acute need for proper labeling on high alert medications where the consequences of errors can be devastating.  He also reported on the lack of proper response from some manufacturers when notified of these potential error causing problems, many of which send out form letters acknowledging receipt of the suggestions with no promise of any meaningful possible action.

Michael Cohen suggested a number of ways that such issues may be avoided and when potential problem areas are noticed by Pharmacy Buyers, they should be reported to the FDA.

The Vendor Displays then took place in the Orleans Arena and a brunch was provided to participants as sponsored by Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.  During the display periods, the following companies were awarded Most Supportive plaques, identifying those companies which were most supportive to Summerdale Enterprises, Inc. and Pharmacy Purchasing Outlook in helping us provide services to the pharmacy purchasing community during the months in 2006 and 2007 that were reviewed and tracked.  The most supportive of all companies considered was Med-Search.  Med-Search also received the award for most Supportive Specialty Distributor.  Among Pharmaceutical Companies, Bedford Laboratories was the most supportive.  The most supportive Drug Wholesaler was Cardinal Health.  EXP Pharmaceutical Services was the most supportive Reverse Distributor.  And in the category of Most Supportive Family of Companies, American Health Packaging, Amerisource Bergen, ASD Healthcare and Chapin Specialty Healthcare were selected.  We truly acknowledge and appreciate the participation of these top vendors, but it is important to note that many thanks also are extended to vendors who by holding a PPO subscription, advertising, and or purchasing a display booth all assist us in our mission of service to the pharmacy purchasing profession.

After displays were completed the next educational program was titled “USP Chapter <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding - Sterile Preparations” by Mary Baker, Pharm.D, MBA.  This session was sponsored on an independent basis by a grant from Silver Sponsor Hospira Worldwide, Inc. 

Mary Baker started her presentation with the reasons why USP <797> was needed, since deaths were experienced in the 60s’ and 70’s, due to contaminated injectables and injuries, and deaths were still being reported.  USP <797> is not only about non-sterility, but is concerned with correct identities and amounts of ingredients.  The main sections include risk levels, automated compounders for TPN, equipment, verification of compounding accuracy and sterilization, personal responsibilities and training, environmental quality, storage, finished product checks, and beyond-use dating.  She highlighted the importance of dressing properly for compounding personnel, including hand hygiene and garbing.  Extensive analysis of low risk, medium risk and high risk procedures were documented.  Those in attendance were given an extensive overview of this complex set of regulations
affecting pharmacy practice today.

The next presentation of the day was by Christopher A. Hatwig, M.S., RPh, titled “HRSA’s 340B Drug Pricing Program - An Update.”  This is a program which is able to cover more and more facilities and is ripe for updates, since it is such a dynamic and growing resource for pharmacy purchasing agents who qualify for its special pricing.  With Pharmacies and Buyers looking at more ways to recover pharmacy charges, the 340B program was of especial interest to many of those in attendance. 

Running concurrently with the 340B lecture was “Effective Utilization of Vendor Provided Resources,” where the winners of the Most Supportive Vendor categories discussed support programs for Buyers that each company sponsors as part of their service package.  The presentation was part lecture, part open forum, where both the presenters and the attendees alike were able to share their thoughts.

The final program for CE credit was the conclusion of the first presentation of the Conference, “Buyers Issues of the Day,” where the attendees reported the conclusions of the small discussion groups formed on Monday.  Moderator Mike Thomas asked the spokesperson from each group to write down their discussion topic and hand it in after the Monday session.  On Wednesday, he listed the top discussion topics so that everyone could see what everyone else was discussing and could comment on each one.  This gave the attendees the opportunity to share their own perspectives and solutions to many of the problems they face.

Then the date and the new location of the next Annual Conference was announced with a multi-media slide presentation (August 11-14, 2008, Las Vegas Hilton), followed by the Grand Prize Drawing for Subscriber-Attendee (the results of which were detailed in September's PPO).

Final Day, August 17

This day began with a feedback session and meeting of the PPO Advisory Forum where suggestions, criticisms and input was provided to PPO staff members from the audience participants.  An additional session of the “Effective Utilization of Vendor Provided Resources” lecture was then repeated, for those who might have missed it the previous day.

To view or review the slides from this Conference’s lecture presentations, go to the “11th Annual Conference Handouts” page of www.pharmacypurchasing.com, to either read or print.

We thank all who supported and attended this program.  It is our hope that one day we will conduct a conference where every PPO subscriber will be in attendance. 

We feel it is that important, not only for the educational value, but for the networking opportunities you get to build upon and enhance each time you attend this conference.  The lines of communication and opportunities for networking do not end on the last day of the Conference. 

You can keep the spirit of the Conference alive, and network throughout the Pharmacy Buyer Community all year round, to keep in touch with the other conference attendees, your colleagues, by reading PPO, contributing an article, or dropping off a comment on the Buyers Forum on our website.