The Immigration Issue and Medication Mistakes

The problem of illegal immigration continues to be a hot-button issue with strong opinions on both sides of the argument. Is there a solution? And do any of the presidential candidates have one? Well get two radically different positions. Then every year its estimated that there are one-and-a-half million preventable medication errors that could potentially cause the death of seven thousand people. So whos to blame for this high number of errors? The doctors? The Pharmacists? Or you, the patient?

Episode Segments:

Immigration by the Numbers Dave is joined by Roy Beck, Executive Director of NumbersUSA.com. Mr. Beck explains that the high number of legal immigrants entices a high level of illegal immigration; current immigration laws are not strong enough, and there is no system in place to punish businesses for hiring illegals. But if you take away their jobs and benefits, they will leave.
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The Argument Against Amnesty Dave welcomes nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr., who thinks there is no reason illegals should be given amnesty. And during this election cycle, any politician that supports amnesty has no chance of being elected.
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The Politicians' Positions on Immigration Dave and Ruben discuss the presidential candidates, and their views on immigration, as well as the way the Latino community views these candidates. And find out the surprising answer on which candidate Ruben thinks will be toughest on illegal immigrants.
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Medication Mistakes There are an estimated one-and-a-half million preventable medication errors every year. So whos at fault? Daves guest, Dr. Michael Cohen, is president of The Institute for Safe Medication Practices. With the number of prescriptions being filled, hes surprised that the error rate isnt higher, and he feels that the main problem is lack of communication.
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Medication Mistakes A Pharmacists View Dave welcomes J. Lyle Bootman, dean of the College and professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Arizona. Dr. Bootman considers medication errors to be one of the silent diseases plaguing America, and that the problem is farther reaching than you might imagine.
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The Speed Factor Americans want their medication, and they want it now! But Dr. Bootman thinks we may have gone a little too far on the speed side of things at the pharmacy, and that could be compounding the problem. A return to the way things used to be, with the corner pharmacy, may be the solution.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Roy Beck Roy Beck is a former journalist and public policy analyst who has served as the Executive Director of NumbersUSA since 1997. Beck was a journalist for three decades before founding NumbersUSA. He is former Washington D. C. bureau chief of Booth Newspapers and one of the nation's first environment-beat newspaper reporters. Beck was also the Washington DC editor of John Tanton's magazine The Social Contract, and a frequent speaker on population and immigration issues. Beck's April 1994 article in the Atlantic Monthly, "The Ordeal of Immigration in Wausau," brought national media attention and commentary to the issue of mass immigration. The New York Times credited Beck's NumbersUSA organization with applying enough pressure to U.S. Senators to defeat a comprehensive immigration bill in June of 2007. Beck has also served as the spokesperson of the Coalition for the Future of the American Worker and authored the book "The Case Against Immigration." Click Here to Visit His Website

J. Lyle Bootman J. Lyle Bootman is dean of the college and professor of pharmacy practice, pharmaceutical sciences, medicine and public health at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Arizona. He also holds the title of founding and executive director of the Center for Health Outcomes and PharmacoEconomic Research (HOPE research center) at the College of Pharmacy. Dean Bootman served as the 1999-2000 president of the American Pharmaceutical Association and the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Society. His current research efforts include outcomes and pharmaceconomics research, pharmacoepidemiology and international pharmacy systems. Specifically, Dr. Bootman investigates the incidence and drug-related morbidity and mortality from a clinical and economic perspective. He has received numerous scientific and national awards and honors, and was recently awarded the 2008 Remington Honor Medal, the profession’s highest honor administered by the American Pharmacists Association. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Michael Cohen Michael Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD, is president of The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a non-profit healthcare organization that specializes in understanding the causes of medication errors and providing error-reduction strategies to the healthcare community, policy makers, and the public. He is editor of the textbook, Medication Errors and serves as co-editor of the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! publications that reach over 2 million health professionals and consumers in the US, as well as regulatory authorities and others in over 30 foreign countries. Dr. Cohen is a member of the Sentinel Event Advisory Group for the Joint Commission and served recently as a member of the Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors, Institute of Medicine. He is also a member of the National Quality Forum’s Voluntary Consensus Standards Maintenance Committee on Safe Practices and served on the FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee. Over the past 5 years, Cohen has consistently been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the top 100 “Most Powerful People in Healthcare.” Click Here to Visit His Website

Ruben Navarrette, Jr. Ruben Navarrette, Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group and appears in 200 papers such as The Chicago Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. The second-generation Mexican-American is one of only a dozen Latino syndicated columnists in the United States, and one of the country's youngest syndicated columnists overall. A frequent spokesperson and commentator on Latino issues, his twice-weekly column offers new thinking on many of the major issues of the day, especially regarding thorny questions involving ethnicity and national origin. The Harvard graduate is also an editorial writer and board member for The San Diego Union-Tribune. A former radio talk show host, he writes and records commentaries for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." He often discusses current affairs on CNN, CNBC, NPR and on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. He has also appeared on Now with Bill Moyers, The Chris Matthews Show and The O'Reilly Factor. Most recently, he appeared as a panelist asking questions of the Democratic candidates in the All American Presidential Forum on PBS. Click Here to Visit His Website