Please provide a brief background of your training and practice setting and years in practice.

I graduated from Sonoma State University with a bachelor of science in nursing. After some years, I attended and graduated from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a dual major: Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist in forensic nursing. I have worked as a GNP in private practice, the VA healthcare system and California State Veterans Home in long term care.

What are you passionate about in long term care?  How are you pursuing your passion?
Providing quality and comprehensive care for all long term care residents. I especially enjoy working with patients with memory impairments and coordinating their care.

by Flora Brahmbhatt, Pharm. D., CGP

Beginning August 1, 2012, the California Department of Public Health will use a new tool to survey antipsychotic use in nursing homes. This 10-section tool will cover all areas with regards to antipsychotics including diagnosis, appropriateness of behavior monitors, documentation, and informed consent. This appears to be at least in part a result of recent nationwide and statewide reports indicating much inappropriate use of these medications, and statistics indicating that nationally, well over 20% of nursing home residents receive antipsychotic medication. With input from CALTCM, CAHF requested some modifications to this tool from the CDPH, but very little was changed. In many ways, this tool levels the playing field for facilities in understanding the exact expectation to be in compliance.

by Glenn Panzer, MD

Recently the DEA fined a pharmacy for prepopulating prescriptions for controlled substances.

It seems to have all started when a “whistle blower” from a Midwestern state reported that a pharmacy company was going too far in assisting doctors with phone orders for C-II medications by sending the physician a fax prescription with all the data, patient's name, address, date, Rx, amount dispensed and the sig filled in. Then all the doctor had to do was review, sign and fax back to the pharmacy company.  As the story goes the DEA found fault with this practice stating that the prescribing physician had to be the primary source of the information and that the pharmacy could only remind the doctor that a hard copy was required and doctor had to "populate all the fields."

John H. Fullerton, MD, CMD , MRO, FACP, AGSF, FAAHPM

As Co-Chair of CALTCM’s: Policy & Professional Services Committee (PPSC) [and as a member of AMDA’s Public Policy Committee (PPC)], I trust you find these episodic, 'Pulse-Like’ updates of the current agenda and status of CALTCM’s PPSC published by “The Wave” to be informative and helpful.

Our committee is currently actively refining CALTCM’s PPSC’s mission statement to not only remain internally regulatory compliant, but to more accurately reflect the true trans-disciplinary team composition of our state-wide constituency (emphasizing our corresponding “brain trust” and competitive advantage.)1   We plan to also be more forward-viewing to emphasize the importance of developing long-term strategic initiatives and strategic relationships.  We likewise plan to achieve functional integration with the relevant and valued positions of AMDA’s Public Policy Committee (PPC).