Online marketing 101 – if it takes someone more than three clicks to get somewhere, you’re going to lose a sale. After owning a SaaS-based company for more than 15 years, I wholeheartedly concur. But the stakes are much higher when those extra clicks compromise the safety of patients and their caregivers.

Last week we had the opportunity to explore the origins of PPE and the critical role it plays in keeping healthcare workers safe. This week, we thought we would talk about the costs related to PPE.

Personal Protective Equipment or PPE has been part of my vocabulary for nearly 30 years. But if I talked to someone outside of the healthcare industry about it prior to March 2020, they would have looked at me like I was speaking Greek. Today, PPE is one of the most ubiquitous three letter acronyms in the English language.

It has been a while since my last blog. It’s not been because we didn’t have anything to share. We simply decided that in times of crisis, it’s best to put your head down and focus on doing everything you can to support the customers you have. And that is exactly what we have been doing at Rpharmy.

There is excellent information in the public domain regarding USP <800>. We have compiled a list of frequently used links we see on our FormWeb and Rhazdrugs software customers. We hope that these sites might be useful.

I am so grateful to Angie for being our guest blogger last week and introducing a very important topic – USP <800> compliance.

I realize I am giving away my age, but I am part of a generation that still remembers driving around in a car without seatbelts. Our moms would reach across the front seat and hold you in your seat with her arm. We would slide across the back seat with your brothers and sisters on sharp turns. Then we got lap belts that gave way to three-point seat belts and airbags. And we resisted seatbelts at first, but now we feel unsafe without them.

In the healthcare world we have been using and handling these potentially hazardous medications for years without a seatbelt, so to speak. So why now do we have USP <800>? Because like the invention of seatbelts, we now know better and we can do better. And it’s an enforceable regulation.

There are a lot of ways for organizations to be compliant with USP <800>. An organization can please the inspectors and check the boxes or they can please the inspectors and check the box AND keep their employees safe. It is a choice. Many of the requirements for USP <800> can be met by placing binders and notebooks on shelves in a central location hoping they will be accessed. But wouldn’t it be so much better for everyone if this valuable safety information was accessible to employees at the point of care? That’s where Rhazdrugs comes in.

Rhazdrugs is a comprehensive list of hazardous drugs and a database that communicates hazardous drug disposal and handling to ensure healthcare worker safety across your entire organization. Hospital, pharmacy, veterinary clinic, skilled nursing facility – wherever it may be, Rhazdrugs provides critical information and much needed peace of mind so that healthcare workers can remain focused on their patients.

In my family we have three doctors, five nurses, and others who are employed in the healthcare sector. We are working hard to do our part to keep our loved ones informed and safe from harm. And we want to help you and your organizations to do the same.

Today’s guest blogger is Angie Choiniere, a healthcare consultant specializing in Compliance, Risk and USP <800>. She is also a long time Rpharmy software user.

I am a both a proponent and user of Rpharmy’s suite of software products. In particular, I had the good fortune to be a part of the development of Rhazdrugs while working with Ochsner Health in Louisiana. But before I tell you why I am such a fan, I think it’s important to set some context as to why this type of software is so critical in healthcare today.

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is a non-profit organization that is focused on improving global health through public standards and programs to ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicine and food. To date, much of the work of the USP has been focused on pharmacies themselves, ensuring strength, quality and purity of medicines as well as providing regulations for things like compounding, and labeling. The first practice and quality standards that protect the safety of healthcare personnel from exposure became effective December 1, 2019 with USP Chapter <800>, an enforceable regulation that focuses on all healthcare personnel and entities that receive, store, compound, dispense, transport or administer hazardous drugs.

All day, every day, healthcare workers are exposed to drugs that are hazardous to their health. It is part of the job. But with USP <800> compliance, entities can minimize the risk and exposure through information, engineering controls, work practice changes, education and training. In an effort to be compliant, I have seen organizations with massive spreadsheets, War and Peace-sized three ring binders, and all methods of attempting to keep relevant information in a single, accessible place. If you are a nurse working with a patient, you don’t have time to flip through reams of paper. You need information fast and you need that information written in clear, easy to understand language.

I was already working with Rpharmy, using their formulary product, when they came to me with their idea for a central, easy to access system for access, storage and maintenance of the information needed to support being USP <800> compliant, including cataloging exceptions through Assessments of Risk. Not only that, but it could be used by all measure of healthcare workers and providers, from pharmacies to hospitals and even veterinary clinics. I was honored to provide feedback and input as part of the development of the software.

Today, that idea is up and running as Rhazdrugs. The software is pure genius and easily the industry standard. Hospitals and healthcare facilities do not have the financial or human resources to create this type of program themselves. If your facility is not yet USP <800> compliant or if your teams are tired of having to search for the information they need, call Rpharmy and ask about Rhazdrugs. It will be the best phone call you make today.

Rpharmy was started to help practitioners ensure the safety of their patients as it relates to the administration of medication. As we started talking to our customers, we began asking ourselves, who is taking care of the caregivers?