From the article:
NABP will “physically inspect all those pharmacies and update them in our database, creating profiles for new pharmacies that we find, and then make that information available [in special reports] that our public and the states can share.”
NABP has the staff resources to carry out the inspections. “Last year we accredited 30,000 pharmacies for the CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] Durable Medical Equipment program, so we have field staff as well as in-house staff to review documents and special reports, policies, procedures, all those things. So we’re geared up, and it’s going to start in December.“
“What’s going to have to happen,” he said, “is a public-private partnership with groups like NABP, where we actually do the inspections or assist the states in doing inspections and then the pharmacies pay fees to these private organizations for that work.”
Dr. Catizone said he is dismayed that this public health crisis occurred in the first place. “This was a system failure,” he said. “Unfortunately they’re blaming certain individuals in Massachusetts. It wasn’t one or two individuals’ responsibility, it was the entire system that failed.”
As I have predicted before… this issue with NECC is going to ripple throughout the profession… NABP already has a certification profess to deal with pharmacies that are HME dealers as well… which responds to the mandates of CMS… how much longer before CMS mandates certification for all community pharmacies… think 2014 with Obamacare?
NABP and APHA recently announced recently that they were developing an accreditation process for community pharmacies…
What I find somewhat ironic is Dr Catizone states that the NECC incident was an “entire system failure”… unless I am mistaken… NABP is suppose to be the coordination organization for this system and Dr Catizone is the leader of that entity..
If you believe in the old saying “unless you are part of the solution.. you are part of the problem”… so now that NABP has decided that they are going to be part of the solution… were they previously part of the problem?
Filed under: General Problems
It is very thoughtful of Dr. Catizone to realize there is a problem with our ‘system’. I wonder how he arrived at this? Could it be the following:
500 confirmed cases of infection
34 deaths
14,000 patients given injections
64 meningitis cases
91 incidences of epidural abscesses
But, let us consider this: how many people knew there was a problem with these injectables? Take a look at the facts. Check out the news stories. It was not just a systems failure, it was blatant disregard for peoples health by a number of people and the total failure of people within a number of agencies to do anything. Some ‘heads should roll’! Some people should be fired. Some people should go to jail. Some people should face death penalty!
Bureaucracy is not the answer. The answer is for people to do their jobs!!!! We know the BOP totally failed to do their job and so did the FDA. So, where are the government agencies that are guarding the publics health? Yes, Steve, you and I would be fired! Heck…they would be throwing us in prison. We cannot tolerate this! As pharmacists, we not only have to stand up for ouselves and our principles, but also force these government agencies to do the same! Where is the outrage among pharmacists? This is our profession that is killing people! We must clean it up. We must force those that perpetrate to be protecting the public to actually do their job and protect the public! I am literally outraged! And, Dr. Catizone is an idiot! Another puppet ‘politician’. If the NABP cannot give a better answer than this, then they are nothing more than crap! We have had 34 deaths. And, there is no end in sight to the number of people that are affected or will be affected. Our ‘so called’ system is a piece of crap. Just look at all these robots. How long will it be before some idiot fills a robot with the wrong drug and we have another bunch of effected people and more deaths? It seems to be more and more clear to me that technology is not providing an answer to a lot of the problems we are having. E-scripts are fraught with errors! How many people are being effected by errors with them? When will this hit the national news?