Waste Not, Want Not: Quantifying Institutional Pharmacy Workforce Time Waste and Making a Case for Ready-to-Administer Products

Live CPEL Recertification Credit

Commonly used throughout healthcare, injectable medications are often causes of medication errors, which have the potential to lead to severe harm, high-cost complications, and mortality. IV push controlled substances, which have a high risk of nonmedical use and diversion, have additional safety, workflow, waste, and documentation challenges and can pose a significant administrative and regulatory burden on healthcare professionals. Ready-to-administer (RTA) prefilled syringes can reduce errors thereby reducing the risk of patient harm and can help overcome many challenges associated with IV push controlled substances.

Recent evidence has examined the impact of IV push controlled substance waste in the pharmacy and the associated workforce time waste and costs. This educational activity will describe how to translate these results into different healthcare systems to advocate for the use of RTA prefilled syringes. Additionally, this activity will present case examples from diverse healthcare facilities to discuss opportunities for implementation, lessons learned, and methods for engaging interprofessional healthcare teams and leaders.

Monday, Dec. 7
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. ET

Symposium Location: Room W110 A, Level 1, Orange County Convention Center, West Building

Come early! Seating is limited and provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lunch is provided for this activity.

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Registration is required for the webinar.

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Speakers

John Hertig, PharmD, MS, CPPS, FASHP, FFIP Activity Chair
President
Hertig Healthcare Advising, Inc.
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Purdue University
Indianapolis, Indiana

Dr. John Hertig is Founder of Hertig Healthcare Advising and Adjunct Faculty at Purdue University (Indianapolis, USA). Dr. Hertig lectures around the world and publishes on a variety of patient safety, leadership, administration, and health policy topics. He is an Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Medicine Access and serves as Secretariate for ‘Patient Safety First: A Collaborative for Evidence-Based Medicines’ which unites diverse stakeholders to protect patient safety by encouraging use of trusted and tested medicines.

Dr. Hertig is a former Member of the United States Food and Drug Administration Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee. He holds national and international appointments, including with the International Pharmaceutical Federation, where he is Treasurer for the Hospital Pharmacy Section, and as Past-President of the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies – Global (ASOP).

Dr. Hertig received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from Purdue University (USA). He completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice and PGY2 health-system pharmacy administration residency at The Ohio State University Medical Center while also obtaining a Masters degree in Health-System Pharmacy Administration from The Ohio State University (USA). He is a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a Fellow of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (FASHP), and a Fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FFIP).

Michele Sheaffer, RPh
Associate Director of Pharmacy
Jefferson Abington Hospital
Abington, Pennsylvania

Michele A. Sheaffer is Associate Director of Pharmacy Operations at Jefferson Abington Hospital located in Abington, Pennsylvania. Ms. Sheaffer earned her degree at Rutgers College of Pharmacy. Collaboration and participation with multidisciplinary teams have led to her success in project implementation and management. Ms. Sheaffer completed the Pharmacy Leadership Institute Program in 2014. Ms. Sheaffer has been a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Health- System Pharmacists since 2011 and currently serves as board member of the Bux-Mont Chapter of which she has previously served as President. Ms. Sheaffer is the chair of Jefferson Abington’s Drug Diversion Prevention and Monitoring Committee. In 2025, Ms. Sheaffer was recognized in receiving Jefferson Health’s Drs. David and Esther Nash Healthcare Quality Award for Safety on her work on Waste optimization.

Les Louden, PharmD, MS
Regional Pharmacy Director
BayCare Health System
Clearwater, Florida

Les Louden is Regional Director of Pharmaceutical Services, West Region, for BayCare Health System in Clearwater, Florida. He provides executive leadership for pharmacy services across six hospitals encompassing approximately 1,700 licensed beds and more than $150 million in annual medication spend. Dr. Louden’s areas of expertise include pharmacy operations, medication-use systems, workforce optimization, pharmacy informatics, RFID-enabled inventory management, and medication safety. He has served as principal investigator and co-investigator on multiple funded research studies evaluating pharmacy workflow efficiency, waste reduction, and the value of ready-to-administer products. Dr. Louden is Immediate Past President of the Southwest Florida Society of Health-System Pharmacists and serves on the Board of Directors of the UnitVisID™ Alliance.

Target Audience

This activity was planned to meet the educational needs of pharmacists in leadership positions including pharmacy executives, managers and supervisors, front-line clinical pharmacists and those in product procurement roles who can identify specific opportunities for realizing benefit from the use of ready-to-administer prefilled syringes.

Learning Objectives

Identify opportunities to effectively communicate the clinical and operational benefits of RTA prefilled syringes to healthcare system decisionmakers.
Analyze approaches to quantifying costs of IV push controlled substance waste in individual healthcare facilities to inform site-specific implementation of RTA prefilled syringes.
Prioritize opportunities to collaborate with interprofessional healthcare teams and leaders to advocate for the use of RTA prefilled syringes.

Agenda

11:30 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions
John Hertig
11:35 a.m. – Making the Case for Ready-to-Administer Prefilled Syringes
John Hertig
11:50 a.m. – Practical Framework for Engaging the Interprofessional Healthcare Team
All Faculty
12:15 p.m. – Institutional Case Studies: Implementation & Lessons Learned
Michele Sheaffer and Les Louden
12:45 p.m. – Faculty Discussion, Questions and Answers
All Faculty

Accredited for CPE

ACPE #: 0204-0000-26-428-L04-P
CE Credit: 1.5 contact hours (0.15 CEUs)
Activity Type: Application-based
Activity Fee: No charge

To Claim CE for the webinar, enter the CE code announced during the activity and complete the evaluation.