Ahhh... vacation. My last week was spent traveling to the Oregon Coast with the family. Despite the self-imposed separation from all things work, I could not help but pick up on a couple items...
As I loaded our van last Saturday for the long drive, I had NPR playing in the background. Scott Simon was interviewing former Clinton-era HHS Secretary Donna Shalala. You can see her interview HERE. Despite her keynote address to ASHP at the Summer Meeting in 2006 where she indicated that pharmacy is a key "team player," she seems to have forgotten that pharmacy even exists. "We have lots of specialists in the country. We'll need more primary care physicians," Ms. Shalala told Mr. Simon. She went on to say "With all the advanced-practice nurses that we have in this country and more to be trained, there is a special role for nurses in our expansion of health care for all." Despite the fact that more errors are attributed to drugs than any other aspect of health care and the cost of medications continues to rise dramatically, pharmacy isn't even mentioned in the current debate.
During our stay in Newport, my wife and I went out to dinner at a small hotel restaurant called The Table of Contents. The Sylvia Hotel is themed on great authors, each room is set up in a style that calls out to a great writer. Dinner is served "family-style" at large tables with other guests and conversation is expected. There is no menu - you eat what is offered. The topic of health care reform came up at the table and many comments were offered. I mentioned that I was a pharmacist. I always do this as a test. "Where do you think pharmacy fits in in the health care reform debate?" I asked the table. The "huh?" look on people's faces was a dead give away. They have no idea how the guy behind the counter at Rite Aide has ANYTHING to do with health care reform. And I'm not picking on retail pharmacy. They didn't even KNOW pharmacists worked in hospitals!
This is a sad state of affairs. For the profession of pharmacy to have any kind of national impact at all, we need the public (and our elected officials) to recognize that we have an important role as credible health care providers. Medications can be safe. Medications can be cost effective. Pharmacy is at the front-lines of health care for most Americans. We need to step out of the shadows and assume the responsibility for taking care of people! Our professional organizations are not doing us justice in terms of PR. We need to take this matter into our own hands. The time could never be better - health care is on everyone's mind right now. Do you let your neighbors know the value you provide? Have you written your congress people about the value of pharmacy in health care?
~charles
Right on Charles! 'Seeing is believing' still rings true with mankind.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Mrs. Jones doesn't see hospital pharmacies anywhere near as often as the retail pharmacies in Target, ShopKo, Wal-Mart or on nearly every high-traffic street corner (Walgreens, CVS and Rite-Aid to name a few).
I wonder if patients are like my children were when they were less than three years old...my kids just asked to buy things and never thought about where the money came from...just how to spend it. Are patients not thinking about where the medications come from are just expecting that they only need to take that medication and get better (never wondering/questioning will this harm me)?
The five rights...I bet most non healthcare folk would try to cite 5 rights from the Bill of Rights.
We need to do more. Thanks for getting the word out there.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! I agree with you that patients need to be part of the solution here. But a large part of the patient perception of pharmacy comes from how they interact with the pharmacists they see, as you so rightly put it, at retail pharmacies. These pharmacists are NOT encouraged by their corporate over-seers to "practice" pharmacy, only to ring out as much profit as possible. For a very poignant example of this, see todays post on the Pharmcy Chick's blog
~charles
Charles,
ReplyDeleteGreat post and follow up comments. I will admit, before I started at Pharmacy OneSource I was one of those that thought pharmacists were just "pill counters". I have become very aware of how false that is. But many of my peers that are not involved with healthcare really are unaware of what pharmacy and pharmacists are responsible for.
It seems the general public needs to be better educated on what their neighborhood pharmacist does for them.
@Paul,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! It has become kind of a personal mission for me to let people know what pharmacists really do.