No abstract

Associations between ambient sounds and accuracy of pharmacists' prescription-filling performance in a pharmacy was studied. Pharmacists were videotaped as they filled prescriptions each workday for 23 days. Each filled prescription was inspected by the investigator. Deviations from the physician's written order were considered errors. Videotape analysis was used to detect unpredictable, predictable, uncontrollable, and controllable sounds. A within-subjects case control study design was employed to determine whether the frequency of ambient sounds was significantly different when prescriptions with errors, compared with those without errors, were filled. Loudness, in terms of equivalent sound levels (Leq) for each half hour, was analyzed for a relationship to dispensing error rate. A mean dispensing error rate of 3.23% was found. Unpredictable sounds, controllable sounds, and noise had a significant effect on pharmacists which resulted in a decreased dispensing error rate. These results suggest that the quality of pharmacists' performance is not adversely affected by ambient sound. As equivalent sound levels increased, the error rate increased to a point, then decreased.

Intercollegiate athletes have been identified as an at-risk group for heavy alcohol consumption (e.g., T. F. Nelson & H. Wechsler, 2001). The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between descriptive drinking norms among one's closest friends and personal alcohol consumption among athletes. Specifically, the authors sought to determine whether perceptions of alcohol consumption among one's closest friend who was an athlete (athlete norms) demonstrated a stronger relationship with personal alcohol use than normative perceptions among one's closest friend who was not an athlete (nonathlete norms). Data were collected on 165 athletes competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level. Results indicated that the athlete norms demonstrated a stronger main effect with personal alcohol use than the nonathlete norms, although both norms demonstrated strong effects. However, an interaction effect indicated that the athlete norms demonstrated a stronger relationship with personal consumption among men, whereas the nonathlete norms demonstrated a stronger relationship among women. Implications for alcohol prevention programs among college athletes are discussed.

This paper considers the possible interactions between oral contraceptive pills and antibiotics, in the context of modern dental practice. A review of the literature on such interactions leads to the conclusion that current national guidelines on the use of alternative contraceptive measures during a course of broad spectrum antibiotics in women also using the oral contraceptive pill should be emphasised and encouraged as part of good clinical practice. A patient information leaflet may be considered as a useful way of presenting such advice to female patients.

National Drug Codes (NDC) is a drug identification code that is widely used to identify each unique commercially available drug product in the computerized health care industry. Various NDC database systems are currently used for the drug claims process, inventory control, and drug utilization review in the industry. Using a relational database, comparison and analysis were performed among eight major NDC database sources from the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Care Financing Administration, Medicaid, Redbook", Medi-Span", First DataBank", Bergen Brunswig-Durr Fillauer", and the Department of Veteran Affairs pharmaceutical information systems. A large discrepancy of comparability among those major NDC database sources was found with the percentage of matched rates ranging from 29.8-99.3%. The study suggests that a public central repository of a completed NDC database system is needed as a standard NDC reference for the health care industry in order to improve the comparability, accessibility, and quality of drug information. in Oxford, Mississippi. The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily constitute the opinions of the institutions that the authors represent. Databases involved in this study were only for this research; no commercial activities were conducted. Questions regarding specific database design and programs should be referred to the first author.