Health News
Imagine yourself hip deep in pharmacy school. You are sweating bullets over classes in pharmokinetics, chemotherapy and biostats. What, ho! You see the calendar reads October and you realize it's American Pharmacists Month and you graduate in 2014 from the University of Kentucky's College of Pharmacy and you want people to know you are acquiring mad skills. What to do? Write a primer about how much pharmacists can do for a community. And then put that primer -- via guest column -- in the Kentucky Kernel, the school's (sort-of) daily newspaper, where people who are consumers of good data like this will gobble it and put it to good use. Student Zachary Noel's list of "the top 10 things you didn't know your pharmacist could do for you" is worth repeating because Noel wants to do more than fill prescriptions, he wants to be a trustworthy health-care partner, something a lot of Kentucky communities could use.
Here's Noel's list of what pharmacists can do:
1) Immunize. Kentucky's pharmacists can provide flu shots and vaccinations, even for the human papilloma virus.
2) Economize. Just ask if you find yourself paying too much for your meds, there might be something your pharmacist can do.
3) Educate. Pharmacist are highly educated health-care providers who are often under utilized and more accessible than traditional sources. Don't feel you have to limit those questions to medication questions.
4) Stand guard. Think of pharmacists as a super-filter and your last, best chance to check that a medication is right for you.
5) Counsel. Vitamins, herbals, over-the-counter meds baffling? The evidence-based and experience-tested pharmacist will have some advice.
6) Prescribe. Yes, some pharmacists, writes Noel, "can enter agreements with various providers allowing them to prescribe or alter medication regimens, such as within the Veteran's Affairs hospital system."
7) Practice in interesting places. Like ERs, ORs, with vets.
8) Complete a residency. Pharmacists can opt for more schooling so they can specialize.
9) Medication therapy management. This means that pharmacists can review all your meds for interactions and make recommendations.
10) Compound. This is where they make stuff not already available. Where they create eye drops or topical ointments specifically for your use as directed by your doctor.
(Read more)
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Health News
Pharmacy student takes time to point out the "Top 10 things you didn't know your pharmacist could do for you"
Here's Noel's list of what pharmacists can do:
1) Immunize. Kentucky's pharmacists can provide flu shots and vaccinations, even for the human papilloma virus.
2) Economize. Just ask if you find yourself paying too much for your meds, there might be something your pharmacist can do.
3) Educate. Pharmacist are highly educated health-care providers who are often under utilized and more accessible than traditional sources. Don't feel you have to limit those questions to medication questions.
4) Stand guard. Think of pharmacists as a super-filter and your last, best chance to check that a medication is right for you.
5) Counsel. Vitamins, herbals, over-the-counter meds baffling? The evidence-based and experience-tested pharmacist will have some advice.
6) Prescribe. Yes, some pharmacists, writes Noel, "can enter agreements with various providers allowing them to prescribe or alter medication regimens, such as within the Veteran's Affairs hospital system."
7) Practice in interesting places. Like ERs, ORs, with vets.
8) Complete a residency. Pharmacists can opt for more schooling so they can specialize.
9) Medication therapy management. This means that pharmacists can review all your meds for interactions and make recommendations.
10) Compound. This is where they make stuff not already available. Where they create eye drops or topical ointments specifically for your use as directed by your doctor.
(Read more)
- Ky. Pharmacists Can Now Fill Orders For A Lifesaving Anti-overdose Drug Without A Doctor's Order, But At Greater Expense
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Pharmacists across Kentucky can now fill orders for naloxone, including the nasal-spray Kentucky-developed version, used to treat opioid and heroin overdoses, without a prescription. Training to help them do that...
- Campbellsville Pharmacists Have Mixed Views About Meds-for-meth Bill; A Good Example Of Localizing A Statewide Issue
Pharmacists have mixed opinions about a bill that would require a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine after a monthly or yearly limit has been reached, reports Calen McKinney for the Central Kentucky News Journal in Campbellsville. (Photo by McKinney)...
- Legislators Hear From New Managed-care Firms; Lawmaker Rates Their Performance With A Show Of Hands From Pharmacists
Kentucky Health News The three companies recently hired to manage Kentucky's Medicaid program outside the Louisville region defended themselves yesterday against complaints that they are squeezing independent pharmacies to the breaking point. One...
- Responding To Complaints About New Managed-care Companies, State Auditor Asks For Claims Data; Lawmakers Threaten Subpoena
With complaints piling up about the three Medicaid managed-care companies that coordinate care for 560,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians, lawmakers and officials are taking action to get to the bottom of the situation. After health providers complained...
- Independent Pharmacists Say Managed Care Costs Them Money
Because two of the three new Medicaid managed-care companies have slashed the dispensing fee they will pay them, independent pharmacists are in danger of going out of business all over the state, pharmacists told the interim joint Health and Welfare Committee...