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Thursday, January 27, 2000
Avoid medical error: Consult your local pharmacist
A good deal of attention has been devoted recently to the sometimes-fatal problem of medical error, particularly in regard to medications. Medications are safe and perhaps the most cost-effective mode of acute and chronic treatment when used appropriately. This requires appropriate prescribing, accurate dispensing by health professionals, and procedures and communications to improve patient care. Pharmacists can play a prominent role in improving medical safety.
The recent Institute of Medicine's report cited chilling estimates that medical errors kill upwards of 98,000 hospitalized patients. Even more alarming, these estimates do not include figures for ambulatory patient care setting because medical treatments and medication use are more fragmented.
Pharmacists are highly trained professionals in the proper dispensing and use of medications. In the neighborhood settings where they often serve patients, pharmacists are equipped to provide patients with important information about types of medications, how they should be taken and for how long, possible side effects, interaction with other medications and foods, and whether a medication replaces something previously taken. Patients should always feel able to communicate with their health care providers and seek answers to their questions.
Health care tragedies can often be averted by effective, timely communication, often as close as your pharmacy.
R. PETE VANDERVEEN
How to save Pittsburgh public television: Support WQED
Show us the money! This is my request to those who have anointed themselves saviors of public television. As a member of the WQED Community Advisory Board, I may be accused of lacking objectivity. However, in this position I have come to appreciate the vision and energy of the staff and directors in their determination not only to save public television in Pittsburgh, but also to increase programming quality and make it more relevant to the Pittsburgh region.
Those like Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman ("Future Dim for WQEX," Jan. 21), who feel we would not miss WQED forget what "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" has meant to millions of kids over the years. They also lack the vision to appreciate what a new show such as "On Q" can do to confront and clarify issues and opportunities in our city and region.
All of this takes money. Money is required to enhance local programming and to enable the station to enter the new digital world. The need for resources to accomplish these goals has, inexplicably, escaped those who rail against the sale of WQEX. Over the years during which the debate over selling WQEX has been continuing, the only suggestions heard from the "saviors" have been to get the money from one or more local wealthy families and to convince Mellon Bank to forgive the loan to WQED.
While it is good to have individual and corporate patrons, I find it childish to harbor the fantasy that some kind person or institution is always there to bail us out. Some think that the relatively low state of commercial and civic entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh is a result of this dependence throughout our history.
Instead, perhaps a bit more self-reliance is called for. WQED is trying this approach by using their existing resources not only to save public television in Pittsburgh but to provide it with an even brighter future of community service. We should all join in supporting them in this effort.
RAY REAVES
Braddock smog
At the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, U.S. Steel makes steel from iron, and it's a dirty business. For 20 years, this plant has rained down dust on the community of Braddock, dismaying and angering local residents. Through a series of consent decrees, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Allegheny County and the state of Pennsylvania have without success sought to end this plant's violations - and now they are trying again. This time, the company has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $550,000 and to implement five Supplemental Environmental Projects aimed at further reducing dust emissions and water pollution violations there.
The Group Against Smog and Pollution commends the regulatory agencies for this action, but we strongly disapprove of the way they have gone about it. For one thing, the public was not informed that a revised consent agreement was being discussed prior to its signing on Nov. 12, 1999.
The county's Air Pollution Advisory Committee was never informed of these violations at its bimonthly meetings. GASP, a judicially mandated participant in earlier versions of the consent decree with USS, was likewise kept in the dark.
Two features of the decree are particularly disturbing. It is stated there that none of the decree's terms can be enforced by surprise inspections. But unannounced inspections are just what is needed. The new decree contains so-called "stipulated penalties" that are automatically imposed when violations occur. But this powerful enforcement tool disappears when USS merely submits a compliance plan. Any subsequent violations that occur can be enforced only through the cumbersome legal battles that have kept the Edgar Thomson works out of compliance for so long.
The past 30 years should have taught us that public involvement is essential to the improvement of local air quality. Nevertheless, with this new decree, the regulators seem to have decided that the enforcement of our air pollution rules is a matter best left to them and the polluters.
MARIE KOCOSHIS
Give school buses space
Almost every school has an area designated for school buses, painted with a yellow line and usually displaying a sign that indicates school bus pick-up and drop-off.
Most often when the school vehicles arrive, the entire area is filled with parked cars - either belonging to teachers or to parents waiting to pick up their child. This means the school vehicles either have to double-park or remain in an area rather far from the school, which irritates school officials and causes unnecessary traffic jams. Also, vehicles park too close to corners and fender benders occur, which really aren't the fault of the school vehicle operator.
If and when police officials are called, they are either between shifts, or on a more critical request.
As an operator of school buses throughout the Pittsburgh area, we request that parents and teachers observe these areas. When police are in the area, they should check these spaces and issue the necessary citations. I am sure a few citations will serve as excellent deterrents for this critical problem for all school vehicle operators.
CLAIRE KLEIN
Start river projects now
In response to "Critics Say River Park Should Fit Bigger Plan" (Jan. 17): We've been talking about, planning and designing our riverfronts for at least the past 90 years. Frederick Law Olmsted presented his Water Front Park Plan to the Pittsburgh Civic Commission in 1910. Let's get on with it! It's not that complicated.
A Pittsburgh Historic & Landmarks Foundation official thinks the "city's ambitious plan for a North Shore park should be put on hold until a riverfront planning group drafts an overall vision for development along the three rivers." Should we wait for "design standards" to be developed for the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela waterfronts? I think that design standards are the last thing we need for our waterfronts - unless we're looking for the turnpike solution. Design standards encourage monotonous and homogeneous results. The same paving, the same lights, the same signs.
Each segment of the river's edge should have a character that reflects its own history and events. The North Shore shouldn't be forced to look like Washington's Landing, the Strip District, the Point or the South Side.
We're paying EDAW $430,000 to design a $25 million North Shore Park. They are one of the most innovative and creative park designers in America today. Let's let them do what they do best and build the park. Let's create a Route 66, not an I-80.
KENNETH E. WORSTELL
Editor's note: The writer presented a River Edge Park Plan to the city in 1979.
Elian excess
I don't know which irritates me more: the politicization of this 6-year-old boy from Cuba, or the amount of media attention this sad story has been given. The media have latched onto this saga as hungrily as the politicians have, be it pro or con.
Surely this can be settled in the courts, where it belongs. Then, whatever the outcome, someone will be angered over the results. That's the nature of the human species. I say, send Elian home to Cuba with his father and grandmothers, and let's all get on with our lives.
SHARYN REED KELSON
The state of our union
President Clinton will give his State of the Union speech tonight. Here's a response, in advance, to what I expect to hear from him:
We, the people, want:
God help America.
CHARLES D. MARTIN
Dean and Professor
Mylan School of Pharmacy
Duquesne University
Uptown
Squirrel Hill
President
Group Against Smog and Pollution
East Liberty
President
Action Transit Enterprises
Etna
Landscape Architect
Fahringer, McCarty, Grey, Inc.
Monroeville
Forest Hills
A refund of the taxes we have overpaid. No more excuses from the Department of Education. The government to shrink. Respect for life. Freedom of religion from the Supreme Court. An unimpeachable president. Strong families. Forget "it takes a village." News media that are fair and square. Straight talk. No more of the "enduring-faith-that-we-can-master-anything" talk. No more pandering by using the politics of envy. Less baloney. Cut out the visionary speech such as "a connection to all cultures." No more than one speech a week. Recognition of the decadent state of our culture and society. Abandonment of the "legacy" of William Jefferson Clinton as hopeless. A real defense of our country. No more lying. No more fooling around.
Library