Target Audience
Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, Compliance Officer, Emergency Department Personnel, Joint Commission Coordinator, Quality Improvement personnel, Risk Manager, Legal Counsel.

Overview
Did you know medication errors are the largest number of medical errors in healthcare today and the most common reason for unnecessary readmissions to the hospital? According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), drug related adverse outcomes occur in 1.9 million inpatient stays, or almost 5% of all admissions. There are also 838,000 patients a year who are treated as an outpatient who have a drug related adverse event.

If a surveyor showed up at your hospital today, would you be prepared? Are you up to speed with the new antibiotic stewardship requirements and pharmacy’s involvement in the new regulations under the Hospital Improvement Rule which became final on November 29, 2019? CMS rewrote 10 of the 18 tag hospital pharmacy sections in 2015 and many hospitals are still struggling with compliance. CMS also made changes to 3 of the 18 pharmacy tag numbers and removed all references to the USP standards while including a requirement to follow all national standards of practice and the evidence-based literature in 2020.

There have also been many recent changes in the nursing section that address medication usage. For the first time, CMS mentions that nursing needs to be aware of some of the pharmacy standards and vice versa. This includes changes to timing of medication, self-administered medication, compounding, safe opioid use and required medication policies.

This program will review the most problematic pharmacy and medication standards and provide guidance and resources to ensure that your facility or system stays in compliance. It is a must attend event for any hospital that accepts Medicare or Medicaid.

Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:

  • Recall that all hospitals that receive Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement must follow the medication guidelines for all patients.
  • Discuss that CMS has requirements on BUD and compounding.
  • Recall that CMS has several required pharmacy policies and procedures.
  • Describe that CMS requires a policy for high-risk drugs such as double checks or dose limits.

Speaker
Laura A. Dixon is the president of Healthcare Risk Education and Consulting. She previously served as the Director, Facility Patient Safety and Risk Management and Operations for COPIC from 2014 to 2020. In her role, Ms. Dixon provided consultation and training to facilities, practitioners, and staff in multiple states.

Ms. Dixon has more than twenty years of clinical experience in acute care facilities, including critical care, coronary care, peri-operative services and pain management. Prior to joining COPIC, she served as the Director, Western Region, Patient Safety and Risk Management for The Doctors Company, Napa, California. In this capacity, she provided consultation to the physicians and staff for the western United States.

As a registered nurse and attorney, Laura holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Drake University College of Law, and a Registered Nurse Diploma from Saint Luke’s School Professional Nursing. She is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California.

This speaker has no real or perceived conflicts of interest that relate to this presentation.