[News article] Pharmacists say collaboration bill will improve care | CJOnline.com

Pharmacists say collaboration bill will improve care | CJOnline.com.

From the 7 July 2014 article

Kansas pharmacists say a bill that went into effect this past week will improve patient care by allowing them to enter into agreements with physicians to do things like monitor and change medication levels without new orders.

Greg Burger, a pharmacist at Lawrence Memorial Hospital who helped push for the bill, said studies have shown reductions in cost and improvements in care when pharmacists have the authority to adjust medication levels, provide the right antibiotics for certain infections and adjust for drug allergies without waiting for a doctor’s say-so.

“There’s all kinds of things we do in hospitals now that we’re hoping to expand out to where pharmacists might be in clinics,” Burger said.

….

English: Well Street Late Night Pharmacy This pharmacy is tucked in behind 1594903 making it very handy for getting prescriptions filled after visiting the Doctor’s surgery. The flat-roofed building to the left and behind is a Co-operative pharmacists, one would have thought that the competition would be quite high, but they seem to manage alright. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The wacky world of prescription prior authorizations

English: National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., (Aug. 19, 2003) — Pharmacist Randal Heller, right, verifies the dosage and medication of a prescription at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Heller checks all prescriptions dispensed at the pharmacy before they are handed over the counter to the patient. Heller is retired as a Commander from the Navy Medical Service Corps. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Seth Rossman. (RELEASED) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pharmacists are among my favorite professionals.
I’ve always been able to get expert prescription drug related information (as side effects) and OTC advice for free! Even when I wasn’t their customer.

But even they are human and have their customer service pet peeves.
Don’t we all who work with clients, customer, and “the public”.
(Just hope I’m not one of those wacky customers!).

 

From the 26 July 2013 KevinMD article

LUCY HORNSTEIN, MD | MEDS | JULY 26, 2013

It’s happened at last: the epitome of ridiculousness in the already pretty ridiculous world of drug prior authorizations. I wish I could say that I made this up.

I got a fax from a pharmacy requesting a prior authorization for a brand name drug called Protonix, one of a family of medications used to treat ulcers, acid reflux, and other forms of tummy ache. This happens. Because there are five different drugs in this class (not counting generics), there is no way I can keep straight which plans prefer which drug. Sadly, switching patients from one medication to another, even if it’s working just fine, purely because of which drug maker is in bed with which insurance plan, is an everyday event. No big deal.

Here’s the thing: the patient was already doing well on pantoprazole, which happens to be generic Protonix. What?

The fax from the pharmacy has more information: “The patient wants a prescription for brand name Protonix because she has a coupon that will allow her to pay only $4.00 for it.”

It just so happens that pantoprazole is already on the list of $4.00 generics!

But, says the pharmacy, that’s what the patient wants.

Read the entire article here

Related articles

• Prior Auths Gone Wild (dinosaurmusings.wordpress.com)
• Q&A with a pharmacist about generic substitution (smallbizadvisor.ca)
• Pharmacy With Success Generic Over The Counter London (diablo3pvparena.com)
• Should Inmates Bring Their Own Prescriptions to the Jail? (jailmedicine.com)

Drug Database Dilemma

From the 26 April 2012 edition of StatelineDaily

No one disputes the need for more information about prescription drug abuse. But who should have access to the information is a divisive issue.
Dr. Shawn Jones, an ear, nose and throat surgeon in Paducah, Kentucky, was conducting a routine office appointment when he got a phone call from a worried pharmacist. The pharmacist had just received a prescription from Jones for 90 Percocet pain pills, an unusually large order for a doctor who rarely prescribes more than 20 pills at one time.

Jones asked the pharmacist to fax over the prescription, and he immediately recognized it as a forgery. It was for a female patient he hadn’t seen in five years. She had somehow gotten hold of one of his prescription pads. Jones asked the pharmacist to delay filling the prescription, went back to the exam room and talked with a policeman who happened to be in the office at the time. The policeman called in to the precinct to have the woman arrested.

Under Kentucky’s current prescription drug laws, only a vigilant pharmacist could have stopped these fraudulent prescriptions. The regulations don’t allow physicians to monitor their own prescribing habits to check for fraud, and the Kentucky board of medical licensure can look up a prescribing record only if a formal complaint against a physician is filed.

That will change under new legislation passed last week in a special session. To deal with the growing problem of prescription drug abuse, Kentucky legislators enacted tougher regulations on doctors and pain management clinics. The law mandates that all physicians and pharmacists who prescribe schedule II and III drugs, such as oxycodone (OxyContin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin), check the patient’s prescription record before writing or filling a prescription. They also have to register prescriptions for those drugs in a state database within 24 hours of writing or filling the prescription.

Currently, only about 25 percent of the states’ doctors use the database.  Now, all of them will be expected to.

Privacy issues
All of this may not sound very controversial. But it is. The database can also be a tool for law enforcement investigations, and these agencies want as much access to it as they can get. This has created a debate about how to balance patient privacy and law enforcement needs in fighting a serious criminal and public health problem….

Related articles

• States struggle with prescription drug abuse (stateline.org)
• Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse-A National Online Database (forbes.com)

Adding pharmacists to docs’ offices helps patient outcomes, study shows

From a November 15, 2010 Eureka news alert

Adding pharmacists to the primary care team right in doctors’ offices may help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes better manage associated risks, a new University of Alberta study had found. The blood pressure of patients with Type 2 diabetes dropped significantly when pharmacists were included in the on-site clinical examination and consulting process, the U of A study showed. Among 153 patients whose hypertension was inadequately controlled at the beginning of the study, the 82 who had advice from a pharmacist were more likely to reach blood pressure treatment targets recommended by the Canadian Diabetes Association. As well, the study showed that with input from pharmacists, the predicted 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease for patients with Type 2 diabetes will drop by three per cent. The results were reported online by Diabetes Care, and are scheduled to appear in the January 2011 issue of the journal. The study can currently be found online at http://diabetes.org/diabetescare. “Pharmacists can play a more active role in primary care and community clinics,” said Scot Simpson, lead author of the study. “We’ve already been actively collaborating on health care teams for years in hospitals.” Placing pharmacists in the doctor’s office instead of in a more traditional role at the neighbourhood pharmacy allows for a more collaborative frontline approach to medication management in primary care, Simpson said. “The doctors, nurses and pharmacists can directly discuss issues specific to any one patient, and by doing so, have the best outcome for the patient.” High blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors are common in people with diabetes, so effective management of medications is key to helping reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke, Simpson added. ### For more information on the study contact: Scot Simpson, associate professor Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Alberta 780-492-7538 ssimpson@pharmacy.ualberta.ca

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