4 Ways Pharmacists Will Make A BIG Impact In 2010

Medication Therapy Management (MTM)

Medication therapy management (MTM) is becoming more and more important as many patients continue to participate in increasingly complex and difficult pharmacotherapeutic treatment regimens concurrently that target a variety of disease states. Pharmacists are experts at fine tuning treatment regimens to be effective and safe, sharing their expert advice with other healthcare professionals in order improve treatment outcomes and avoiding unnecessary healthcare cost. After years of observation, this concept has shown itself as quite valuable in the arena of healthcare. A study published by Barnett MJ, Frank J, Wehring H, et al. J Manag Care Pharm. 2009;15:18-31 found that “for every $8.44 reimbursed to community pharmacists for providing MTM, the average estimated cost avoided by the healthcare system was $93.78.” As time goes on pharmacists will be utilized more and more to become involved in MTM services as reimbursement has shown as a good investment in quality and cost efficient healthcare.

Diabetes Care

In 2007 the CDC estimated that almost 8% of men women and children in the United States were diabetic. That’s over 23 million! And as time goes on that figure is expected to increase significantly. With a wide array of medications increasingly becoming available in the present times, pharmacists have become a very valuable and important asset to patients with diabetes. Complex insulin regimens, fine-tuned diets, and tedious oral medication schedules can be infinitely challenging for patients attempting to manage their condition on their own.  For many patients, controlling their blood sugar can be like trying to “ride a unicycle on a beach ball”. Pharmacists are stepping in and offering their knowledge to patients by helping to manage patients diabetes, and are a very valuable tool to help patients achieve their successful treatment outcomes.

Cost Savings:  Therapeutic  Substitution

This is a common experience among pharmacists. A patient approaches the counter with a prescription that is “just too expensive!”  As the sluggish economy continues to lay a burden on patients seeking to cut their costs, now is more important than ever to have pharmacists at their side. Working with prescribers, pharmacists offer patients therapeutic equivalent options that, while just as safe and effective, may be more financially bearable through approved substitution.

Vaccine Administration

In 1995, only 5 states allowed pharmacists to administer vaccinations. Today, all 50 states allow pharmacists to administer some sort of vaccine. As we all have observed with H1N1 vaccine, accessibility to the public is very important. Pharmacists have helped to increase vaccine rates in the public and have not stopped pushing to make vaccine services of all kinds available through pharmacies. For example, states such as Missouri have adopted legislation allowing pharmacists to administer meningitis, shingles, viral influenza, and pneumonia vaccines by protocol with a physician as long as they file a “Pharmacist Notification of Intent to Administer Vaccines” with the Board. With a number of amendments last year in numerous states, pharmacists will begin to become a mainstay in role of vaccination administration.
Related Links

http://www.pr.mo.gov/pharmacists-emergency-immunization-rules.asp

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/DM/PUBS/statistics/