Insight: Winter 2021

Winter 2021 | 6 Industry News Pharmacy Cleanliness Study An interesting study in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy (AJP) highlighted issues with pharmacy cleaning processes. The culprit found “down under” might have you looking at the script basket. The study was conducted with 173 pharmacists by the National Institute of Independent Pharmacy Research, Melbourne looking at what was being done to foster safety for staff and patients. While the pharmacies were diligent with regular cleanings, the study did find some areas of concern. Less than half of the pharmacists said they were cleaning and disinfecting script baskets, that place where patients drop off their prescriptions and pharmacy staff routinely retrieve them. The script basket is potentially the “most highly touched object in the pharmacy… the medium of possible SARS-CoV-2 transmission between staff and patients.” Source: AJP A study conducted in the summer of 2020 by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP Global) found a slow increase in the use of online pharmacies. The group questioned 1,500 respondents in the national survey to determine if COVID-19 was having an impact on internet healthcare use. The same survey was taken three years ago and found 33% were going online to fill prescription medications. The July 2020 survey revealed 35% were doing the same, a jump of two percent. More than a third of those taking part in the survey cited the pandemic as the reason for moving to online prescriptions. Even with a small boost between the two surveys, officials are worried about fraudulent pharmacy websites taking advantage of unsuspecting patients. It is estimated within the first two weeks following the declaration of the COVID-19 outbreak, hundreds of thousands of websites were registered with terms such as “COVID,” “virus,” and “corona.” The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy ® (NABP ® ) reports on its website that more than 90% of coronavirus-related domain names were registered using privacy/proxy services to remain anonymous. Source: NABP Poll: Online Pharmacy Use Slowly Rises