PITTSBURGH, Dec. 8 Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle� Inc., is receiving an award from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) today at the 12th Annual Cheers Awards reception held in Las Vegas. The Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a superlative standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events.
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The Giant Eagle Pharmacy is being recognized for its efforts in ensuring high quality customer service and accuracy. Giant Eagle Pharmacy has implemented two quality initiatives that have subsequently been shared with other industry members. The first, No Defects Passed Forward (NDPF), encourages staff to identify errors before they reach the pharmacist for final verification. The second program prevents point-of-sale errors by linking the pharmacy dispensing system to the registers. A barcode with patient date-of-birth was added to prescription receipts--when scanned, a blind prompt is created for the team member to enter that date. If it does not match or is not entered, the sale cannot be completed. The only way the date can be obtained is by asking the person picking up the prescription. Both of these programs help ensure that the right drug gets to the correct patient.
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"Medication accuracy is paramount at Giant Eagle," said Randy Heiser, Vice President of Giant Eagle Pharmacy. "We're honored to be recognized by the ISMP for our dedication to the health and well being of our customers."
The Cheers Awards are hosted by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a nonprofit organization that works closely with healthcare practitioners and institutions, regulatory agencies, consumers, and professional organizations to provide education about medication errors and their prevention. ISMP represents more than 30 years of experience in helping healthcare practitioners keep patients safe, and continues to lead efforts to improve the medication use process.
About Giant Eagle
Giant Eagle Inc., ranked 40 on Forbes magazine's largest private corporations list and recipient of Grocery Headquarters' 2007 Retailer of the Year Award and the EPA's ENERGY STAR Retail Partner of the Year Award, is one of the nation's largest food retailers and food distributors with approximately $8.2 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. has grown to be the number one supermarket retailer in the region with 163 corporate and 58 independently owned and operated supermarkets in addition to 153 fuel and convenience stores throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, north central West Virginia and Maryland.
SOURCE Giant Eagle Inc.
