FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stephen Chavez, NACCME, LLC
609-371-1137 ext. 6231
schavez@naccme.com
Live CPE to Improve Health System Pharmacy Process of Care Measures for Inpatient Pneumococcal and Other Adult Vaccination
Millstone Township, NJ (November 16, 2011)-Pharmacy Learning Network (PLN®), a North American Center for Continuing Medical Education (NACCME) Initiative and the leader in live, local learning for hospital-based pharmacists, announces its collaboration with Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA)—dedicated to improving medication use through measurement and reporting—and VHA, a nationwide network of community-owned health care systems and their physicians, to improve adult vaccination metrics through live continuing pharmacy education programming.
The year-long CPE initiative, Aligning Adult Immunization Programs with Established Best-Practices: A Road Map for Health-System Pharmacists, features live instruction in sessions at each of PLN’s 6 regional meetings in 2012, simulcasts of the sessions to over 1,400 institutions through VHA-TV and a web-based on-demand version of the session. The curriculum will focus on overcoming systemic barriers to guideline adherence. The initiative will allow PLN to assess, impact, measure and report the vaccination impact the CPE sessions had on performance in adult vaccination while providing PQA with important metrics for the real-world implementation of their guidelines.
Stephen Chavez, Senior Director at PLN®, describes the need. “The gap between the number of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)-defined candidates for vaccinations and the number of those patients receiving the pneumococcal vaccine is significant. Published studies show that while nearly 100% of the patients eligible for this vaccine were successfully identified by health-system pharmacists (HSP), only 45% of vaccinations ordered by the pharmacists through standing orders were actually administered.”
About Pharmacy Learning Network®: PLN® is the only national continuing education platform dedicated to live, local learning for hospital pharmacists. In addition to web-based activities, our regional, one-day meetings provide pharmacists with curriculum specific to their needs and interests. Attendees obtain up to 7 live contact hours of continuing education credit on topics that include diabetes, cardiology, pain management, oncology, and antibiotic stewardship.
About NACCME: North American Center for Continuing Medical Education (www.naccme.com), an HMP Communications Holdings Company, provides the highest quality CME/CE across medical disciplines and therapeutic areas. In conjunction with top medical faculty, NACCME develops evidence-based initiatives that target specific educational needs, assisting healthcare professionals in improving patient outcomes by bridging the gap between current and best healthcare practices.
About VHA: VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes. In 2010, VHA delivered record savings and value of $1.7 billion to members. Formed in 1977, VHA serves nearly 1,350 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 30,000 non-acute care providers nationwide, coordinating delivery of its programs and services through its 16 regional offices. VHA has been listed as one of the best places to work in health care by Modern Healthcare since 2008 and one of the best places to work in IT by Computer World since 2007.
About Pharmacy Quality Alliance: Established in 2006, PQA represents pharmacy providers, health plans, employers, PBMs, academicians, outcomes researchers, senior advocacy groups, health IT vendors, state and national healthcare associations and members of the pharmaceutical industry. PQA identifies appropriate quality metrics for medication use and medication therapy management services. For more information, visit www.PQAalliance.org.
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