CPE

Donna Horn, MS, RPh, DPh, CHC

Every pharmacy practice strives to avoid medication error sentinel events—the type of errors that result in death or serious physical or psychological injury not related to the natural course of a patient’s illness. According to the National Patient Safety Foundation, of the 3 billion prescriptions filled, as many as 30 million dispensing errors occur. While some of these errors are not even noticed, others can have serious consequences, including death. The Pharmacist Liability Claim Report: 2nd Edition,1 published in March 2019 by CNA and the Healthcare Providers Service Organization (HPSO), identified and addressed liability exposures incurred by its insured pharmacists and pharmacies. Supported by APhA and with input from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), the report contains analyses of pharmacist professional liability of closed claims. According to the report, wrong-drug and wrong-dose errors continue to be the highest distribution of professional liability allegations in closed claims, accounting for 52.1% of all pharmacist malpractice claims. The good news is that this is a decrease from 75.3% in the 2013 report. 

The report explicitly indicates the common pharmaceutical malpractice allegations are as follows:

• Failure to identify overdosing
• Failure to provide instructions or providing wrong instructions
• Contamination of drug/container/equipment
• Labeling error
• Failure to review laboratory values required for proper dosing 
• Compounding calculation and/or preparation error
• Prescription given to the wrong patient 
• Failure to supervise 

Pharmacists can review the contributing factors and root causes that lead to these types of malpractice allegation of errors and apply prevention recommendations. By following safe medication practices to enhance their patient safety practices, pharmacists can ensure optimal patient health and the well-being of the entire pharmacy team.

CPE assessment

This assessment must be taken online; please see “CPE information” in the sidebar on the previous page for further instructions. The online system will present these questions in random order to help reinforce the learning opportunity. There is only one correct answer to each question.

CPE information

To obtain the 2.0 contact hours (0.2 CEUs) of CPE credit for this activity, you must complete the online assessment with a passing grade of 70% or better, complete the evaluation, and CLAIM CREDIT at http://apha.us/CPE. You will have two opportunities to successfully complete the assessment, and the questions will be in randomized order. The current policy of the APhA Education Department is not to release the correct answers to any of our CPE tests.

This policy is intended to maintain the integrity of the CPE activity. Learners who successfully complete this activity by the expiration date can receive CPE credit. Please visit CPE Monitor for your statement of credit/transcript.

To claim credit
1. Go to http://apha.us/CPE.
2. Log in to your APhA account, or register as a new user.
3. Select “Enroll Now” or “Add to Cart” (click “View Cart” and “Check Out”).
4. Complete the assessment and evaluation.
5. Click “Claim Credit.” You will need to provide your NABP e-profile ID number to obtain and print your statement of credit.

Assistance is available Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm ET at APhA InfoCenter by calling 800-237-APhA (2742) or by e-mailing infocenter@aphanet.org.