Home - ICHP KeePosted

Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

Directly Speaking
Welcome to the New KeePosted

by Scott A. Meyers, Executive Vice President

Here it is, the first new edition of the redesigned, revitalized, and re-energized KeePosted! In 2012, ICHP moved into the digital world and away from a paper version of KeePosted as a money-saving idea that also satisfied members who were either trying to go paperless or felt that the paper version was not environmentally sound. We did save money but it became fairly clear that we lost readers.

More importantly, we lost a valuable route of communication to our members! You see many members don’t receive the important e-mails and digital issues of KeePosted that we send out. If your e-mail address is a work address, there’s a good chance that your employer’s firewall is blocking our transmissions.

So if you have a personal e-mail, please send it to us so that we can reach you with important and often time-sensitive information about pharmacy laws, regulations, and other practice changes. We are working daily to reduce the e-mails we send so that when you see one you will want to open it because it is important.

And because we were only providing the KeePosted online, the extra step of going after it to read it has seemed to be a barrier for many. We will also be sending a copy of each quarterly KeePosted to all the hospital pharmacy directors across Illinois, regardless of whether they are a member of ICHP. This copy is designed to be shared with pharmacy staff members, keeping them in the loop and encouraging those who don’t receive this at home (non-members) to join ICHP so that they may receive all the value of membership all year long rather than just once every three months.

While the KeePosted has been reduced from 10 issues a year to 4, we will make sure you get the important changes to pharmacy statutes, rules, and practices as soon as they are available - thus the need for an e-mail address that can receive the updates. We will summarize any changes in each issue of KeePosted but it may be two or three months after all our members see them, so membership will still have its privileges!

You will see printed details related to our statewide meetings, legislative day, and more in the print KeePosted which may entice you to dig deeper online and then register to attend. We will highlight the activities of each of ICHP’s student chapters in each edition so you can get a better picture of the future of our profession. Overall, we think that more members will be better informed with the new print version of KeePosted!

The new KeePosted will be printed on recycled paper. And paper, in general, is a renewable resource that is now farmed and managed professionally, creates and maintains jobs, and is ecologically clean. So for those of you who wanted to save the planet or just reduce clutter, you may still opt out of the paper version but we think most members will continue to receive it.

We hope you find the new KeePosted refreshing and a positive improvement in the way we communicate with you. We hope you read every issue and open other lines of communications with us after you read this in the first issue of the new KeePosted! (By sending the ICHP office your personal e-mail address to receive important news right away!) And don’t be afraid to let us know what you think about this important change, what articles you would like to see, and other ways we can communicate with you more efficiently and effectively!■