Drug Take Back Program
The stories are lining up for expired drug pick-ups. CAPA’s own Nathan Pope, at Live Oak Pharmacy were able to start a program to collect expired and unwanted prescription medication. You can see other pharmacies are following suit. Look at this report from California:Start spreading the word, disposing of expired and unused medications improves safety of the environment and us as consumers of drinking water. Thank to TPA for providing the link.
TPA Announces 2010 Award Winners
TPA has announced their 2010 award winners. We have another CAPA member who earned the award for Pharmacist of the Year. Congratulations Mark Zamutt, job well done. Per the TPA award page: Pharmacist of the Year–Mark S. Zamutt, R.Ph. Recognizes a pharmacist who possesses a record of unquestionable integrity, outstanding service to the local or state association and a personal record of exemplary service to the pharmacy community. CAPA would like to congratulate all the other winners this year. Thanks to Tara P. for getting this posted.
Speak out on Bylaw Proposals During June 3 Conference Calls
TPA is hosting some conference calls at off peak times for pharmacists and pharmacy staff to have their voice heard regarding the new proposed bylaws. Make sure to visit their site for more information. Speak out on Bylaw Proposals During June 3 Conference CallsConference Call 1: 7:30 a.m. on June 3 Conference Call 2: 7:30 p.m. on June 3 To participate, dial 1-866-206-0131 and enter pin number 919539#. See Overview of Bylaw Changes If you have questions about the proposed changes to the TPA Bylaws, be sure to participate in the special member forum via conference call on Thursday, June 3. The conference calls will take place twice on June 3 to accommodate members’ varying schedules. Highlights of the proposals will be covered, along with why the changes are necessary. Listen, ask questions and learn more about your Association. The proposed changes will be voted on July 18 by the TPA House of Delegates.
March 4th Meeting Minutes
The officers of CAPA have decided to publish our meeting minutes so that all CAPA members can view what it is we discuss. It is also a good opportunity for any members to ask questions via the blog. You can always respond using the comment tool below. Once it is posted we will ensure a response int eh comments ourselves or bring it up at the next meeting. You can find the last board meeting notes here.
Contributing Authors…Finally
We are finally going to start something new on our blog. As president I have asked that our board members get involved in generating posts about their everyday experience in pharmacy practice. It definitely takes a lot to spill your guts, but it can make for some great stories and some good experience to apply in our own setting. We are going to allow our board members to speak their mind. We will even allow them to vent their frustrations. As this process becomes more active, I would highly recommend you ping the blog email if you are interested in contributing your own post. Most importantly, we really want to see your commentsYour comments are what make a blog flow. Feel free to comment anonymously, or feel free to hold your ground on whatever it is you would like to discuss. We ask only one thing, KEEP IT CLEAN!! In the meantime, check out our first CAPA board member blog post. It comes from a very special member who has been with CAPA for a very long time. Join us as we finally enter the interactive blog sphere. Marcus
April CAPA meeting
Our next meeting will be held at the Iron Cactus Downtown on April 1st starting at 6:30 PM. Please make sure you RSVP to the e-Vite in order to confirm your attendance. We will be placed in the Cactus Room at the Iron Cactus downtown. The sponsor for the event is Santarus, Inc. represented by Angela Jones and Astra Sparks. Everyone please make sure to thank our sponsors for this CAPA event.In addition to our talk on Zegerid-Immediate Release Oral PPI, Alleviate the Burden of GERD and Glumetza-Address the Limits of Metformin, we will also be joined by one of the candidates running for TPA president. She also happens to be a current CAPA member. Dorinda Martin will be introducing herself to many of our members for the first time and renewing her friendships with our consistent members. She will discuss her run for the TPA presidency for 2010 election. We are looking forward to seeing everyone there! If you have any questions for Dorinda, please comment them down below and we can make sure she addresses them during her discussion.
College of Pharmacy Survey
During our past meeting, several of the pharmacists filled out a quick survey for the UT College of Pharmacy.The University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Administration Division, is presenting a survey to practicing pharmacists, such as yourself. The topic is on transferring of prescriptions and the perks that go with it for patients. They will be gathering the data and analyzing the perceptions that practicing pharmacists have towards transfer promotions. So if you ever dealt with transferring prescriptions, and the coupons that go with it, take the time to do the survey. You can participate on the survey by going towards the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/txcoupons Take the 5 minutes to complete the survey and help the pharmacy administration division with their research. Thank you to Marc Fleming for passing this opportunity to the CAPA members.
Next CAPA Meeting Thursday March 4th
Our first meeting for 2010 has taken a while to finally appear, but it is here. We will be having a talk on buprenorphine given by William Nemeth, MD. Fore more details, visit our Facebook Fan Page or our Website. If you are not receiving e-vites, please reach out to our secretary Tara Penny. Remember if your membership is not current with TPA or CAPA, you will not be receiving the e-vites. You can always join now by visiting the TPA website, which is just about to get revamped. Many of the CAPA members and other local pharmacists have been helping TPA get ready for their annual meeting, which will be held in Austin, TX, this year. CAPA is the local chapter of the Texas Pharmacy Association that will be co-hosting the event. If you are interested in contributing to the event, make sure to reach out to Mark Zamutt, one of our local members. We are also looking for more sponsors for our meetings. Please contact our program director to sponsor any future events. You can see the current schedule of our meetings page of the CAPA website. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our meetings, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at D&B on Thursday evening.
Pharmacists and health care reform
A member of CAPA passed along this quick read from Kaiser Health which describes the LA Times article on pharmacists in the health care reform movement. Take the time to read the article and see for yourself why we need to stand up as a profession and show why we can be the experts in managing patient’s medication therapy and medical conditions. See how pharmacists can achieve those positive patient outcomes by filling in the gaps that current health care solutions do not fill. Pharmacists Could Play Important Role In Reform Thank you to Scott Griggs for sharing the article to the rest of us. If you have something you would like to share with the rest of your fellow CAPA members do not hesitate to send us an e-mail with a link and any description you would like to include in the discussion.
Next CAPA meeting this Thursday (12/3)
We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the next CAPA meeting this Thursday at Cannoli Joe’s in South Austin. We will be listening to an update to Texas Law from our very own CAPA member Gay Dodson, the Executive Director of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. This educational session will have CE available and keep in mind that the session will be recorded for future use as a webinar CE. This is our joint meeting with AASHP, so please welcome all the new faces, and some regular ones, when you see them in the meeting room. As a reminder, e-mails and letters have been mailed out to renew your TPA memberships. There have been some changes to the renewal process including how you make a contribution to the local association. Please remember to add $30.00 in the appropriate section of the renewal, online or in print, in order for your local CAPA association to receive the dues to keep having these functions. More importantly the money is also used to provide scholarships to the University of Texas College of Pharmacy and for active CAPA members interested in promoting pharmacy advocacy. One of the added benefits to joining TPA this year will be a subscription to the Pharmacist Letter, which many pharmacist consider the best 20 minute read in order to keep up to date in our practice. This is a nice value for the renewal or beginning to your TPA membership. Also, use this opportunity to recruit other pharmacy personnel to the organization and to CAPA. The more members we have the more opportunities we can create for meetings like this one and for other great events in the future. Technicians, Students, Pharmacists and anyone else is welcome to join the association, just send them over to the TPA website for more information. We are looking forward to seeing everyone this week. And for those of you unable to make the event, have a healthy and happy holiday. Marcus — CAPA President