Reflection 11/8

This week we learned about the overall communication between patient and pharmacist. This communication line is extremely important in the sense that the patients ultimate quality of care is at stake. When it comes to patients, they each have their own distinct condition as well as personality that goes with it. Some patients are very involved in the knowledge of their condition and chose to learn as much as they can. On the other hand there are individuals who are oblivious or could care less and would rather just listen to instructions. When it comes to providers, there are not enough of them to go around. In this day and age there are a increasing number of conditions arising that ever before. These conditions call for more physicians and pharmacists in order to keep up with the rising demand. On top of this the education of a pharmacist is changing. They used to be focused on drug interaction but are now more focused on disease treatment. This means that there is an inconsistency throughout the profession. All of this leads to the idea that pharmacists are looked at different by patients/customers compared to what they actually are. They are extremely well educated individuals who always out the care of the patients first. They want there to be better outcomes from patients because in the end that means that there quality of life and health is improving. From a birds eye view though, patients/consumers actually see them as middlemen or stepping stones. They do acknowledge that the pharmacist is educated, yes, but they do not feel like they care about them. They feel that as soon as they walk into a pharmacy, they are rushed in and out. Some patients like this but some do not. When it comes to communication, you want to be able to relate to the patient. You want them to feel as though they are more than just a filled prescription. Having this empathy and compassion can go a long way. The profession must move towards education and counseling rather then pushing products. When I thought of this all I instantly thought of the movie Patch Adams. It is about a man who genuinely wanted to bring love and affection to the professions of doctors because he himself experienced the pain of disconnection between himself and his doctor. He made it his sole purpose to make every patient smile and feel cared about when he was treating them. This affection made the patient feel like they were important which ultimately made them more comfortable to disclose information to the physician. When Dr. Collier and Dr. Campbell spoke of this lack of empathy for patients, I knew exactly what they meant. When it comes to patients, they are already self conscious of their condition which makes them feel outlandish. They see many doctors from all different professions but they are not able to create a relationship with each. If they felt more like a friend then maybe their treatment would go much smoother. This comes into play in one of the readings we did where the study spoke of different types of pharmacists and how patients reacted to each scenario containing the different types. The one pharmacists that rose above the others was the deliberative pharmacists. This pharmacist spoke to their patients as if they were family or friends. They made recommendations in a friendly manner and made the patients feel comfortable. This had the most positive reciprocity with patients. This shows that patients want to feel individualized and important. A business model to put into place is the MTM or medication therapy management. This model has been put into place but has some pros and cons. Basically it is a consultation service that allow pharmacists to meet with patients and go over there current treatment plans. They review all of the medications that the patient sis on and explain each other them as well as their interactions. This allows the patient to be more aware of which medications that should be careful about as well as allows the pharmacy to double check to see if the treatment the patient is on is the best possible one for their condition. This sounds extremely beneficial but there are some downsides. The consultation can take a long time depending on the severity of the condition which means that this takes the pharmacists away from the front lines of the pharmacy where they can be needed. On top of this there are minimum standards put in place that allow patients to use this service and have it covered by insurance. Medicaid Part D covers this but only if the patient is on 2-3 medications at one time, have 2-3 disease states, and be spending over $4,000 on drug costs a year. This limits the number of people that can use the service as well as makes these meetings long and complex. When looking at the service you have to take into consideration that pharmacists are not getting paid anymore to do this. They are the only profession that dispenses their knowledge on a daily basis and does not charge for it. This means it is hard to motivate pharmacists to want to take more time out of their busy day to do more work for no more pay. The only convincing you can do is prove to them that they are bettering the industry and the patients lives as a whole. These consultations end in less hospitalizations, less healthcare expenditures, and better quality of life. These are what pharmacists strive for after having so much education. This business model has much potential for success but there must be changes made to it in order to benefit both parties. Communication between pharmacists and physician then physician and patient, must be a core focus. In the end it will lead to mess medical errors which is plaguing the industry right now. With health care resources being so scarce, we need all the help we can get.