Education Program

Pre-Conference Programming

Sunday, March 1

2009 NHIA USP < 797 > Pre-Conference:
USP < 797 > Standards: Overcoming Challenges on the Road to Compliance

Supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Hospira Worldwide, Inc.

7:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Hilton Baltimore

Continuing Education Contact Hours:
Pharmacy and Nursing—5.0

Education Overview:
This pre-conference seminar, introduced and moderated by Eric Kastango (an elected member of the United States Pharmacopoeia [USP] Sterile Compounding Committee and an expert in USP Chapter < 797 > since its inception), will provide a hands-on problem assessment and resolution approach for overcoming the most common challenges to compliance with USP < 797 > Standards (“Pharmaceutical Compounding – Sterile Preparations”). Beginning with a thorough review of the standards, additional faculty will be introduced to respond to the below problematic areas—describing the lessons learned and the strategic problem-solving methods they used to actually resolve these issues in their own pharmacies:

• Environmental Monitoring: Consider options for air sampling and how it can be accomplished efficiently and cost-effectively by pharmacies that are small vs. large—as well as one-office operations vs. multi-location settings.
• Quality Assurance: Investigate the role of the operator, testing material choices and laboratory selection in achieving meaningful QA results that guide your compounding practice improvement opportunities.
• Pharmacy Construction and Remodeling: Focus on how to assess your existing pharmacy environment, identify areas in need of improvement and select remodeling options that meet your clinical needs—and budgetary constraints.
• Heating/Ventilation/Air-Conditioning Issues: Walk through examples of HVAC issues that occurred following construction—and listen to experts in the field describe how to both resolve these issues and prevent their occurrence with careful planning and contractor collaboration.
• Hazardous Drug Compounding: Recognize the level of hazardous drug compounding that necessitates more stringent controls in the pharmacy—including a negative pressure room and the steps every pharmacy can take to minimize employee exposure.
• Compounding Competency and Proficiency: Appreciate how a perfectly constructed pharmacy environment can be quickly overcome with poor technique—and acquire strategies for achieving staff proficiency and ongoing competency with good compounding practices.

Faculty: Eric Kastango, MBA, RPh, FASHP, President, Clinical IQ, LLC, Florham Park, NJ; Additional Faculty to be Announced

Sunday, March 1

2009 NHIA Executive Pre-Conference:
Charting Your Course for Success—Facing Challenges and Embracing New Opportunities to Keep Your Business Current, Relevant and Growing

Supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Managed Health Care Associates (MHA)

7:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.
Hilton Baltimore

Continuing Education Contact Hours for both NHIA Pre-Conferences:
Pharmacy and Nursing—5.0

Education Overview:
The NHIA Executive Pre-Conference is specifically designed for senior executives, owners, managers and other leaders in the field who are seeking fresh ideas and strategies for maintaining a relevant and successful alternate-site infusion business, amid changing and economically challenging times. Throughout this thought-provoking program, you will hear from experts who are uniquely positioned to share their vision for the future—and the steps you can take to adapt, thrive and chart your course for market growth and financial success, both in the near- and long-term. Gather with colleagues to analyze the primary factors influencing change in today’s marketplace:

• Key Trends and Drivers: Examine the most critical developments emerging within alternate-site infusion to gain a better strategic understanding of the waters you and your organization must traverse, so as to assure a flourishing future—including current economic uncertainties, ongoing mergers and acquisitions, a promising drug pipeline, evolving reimbursement realities, staffing shortages, significant patient demographic shifts and the hope of meaningful Medicare coverage for home infusion, to name just a few!
• Strategic Positioning in the Local Market: Join industry real estate veteran David Newton for an insightful discussion about real estate transactions in an era of serious economic challenges—grasp how to select the ideal location for your business, and then negotiate the best deal for the location.
• Future-Oriented Business Models—And Collaborations: Explore the concept of “pharmacoeconomic stewardship” as industry expert Mike Rigas takes you on a journey of enhanced partnering with payers to provide the most cost-effective, high-quality, patient care possible—and discover future-oriented business models that creatively address reimbursement challenges associated with rising costs of health care (including ambulatory infusion suites in “rented” spaces around the city that are geographically convenient to a wider patient base).
• Advancing the Bottom Line via a Culture of Employee Retention: Comprehend the negative bottom-line consequences of staff turnover (especially in the midst of pharmacist and nurse shortages), assess the evidence-based business case for proactively fostering a culture of employee retention, and obtain tangible approaches (as presented by Francis Battisti, a health care leadership and human resources expert) for retaining your quality employees who sustain your daily operations and inspire the referral sources to request your diverse services.

Moderator: Richard Bulich, PharmD, Senior Vice President, Specialty Pharmacy, Managed Healthcare Associates (MHA), Nederland, CO

Faculty: Francis L. Battisti, CEO, Battisti Networks, Binghamton, NY; David Newton MBA, CCIM, CFP, Principal, Lee & Associates, Orange, CA; Michael Rigas PharmD, Associate Chief Innovation Officer, Pharmaceutical Care, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA; Additional Faculty to be Announced