Editorial
Welcome to the first homepage edition of i2P for 2012.
In many ways it has been a slow start to the New Year because of having to deal with the “leftovers” from 2011.
One of those items for i2P was that a third-party provider to the site did not advise of a code change to the security section in our subscribe panel, creating a range of frustrated subscribers not able to get on board.
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Columns
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Volume 2012 Number 1
Health Politics
Neil Johnston: Friends of Science in Medicine
Peter Sayers: Confessions of a Frustrated Pharmacist
James Ellerson: $75.5 million in 5CPA lying idle. Why is it so?EPublications
The "White Paper" for the Future of Pharmacy
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Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues | |
The following article recently appeared in “About Strategy + Business”, published by the global consultancy firm Booz & Company. It is a rather long article, but it forms a useful reference for the profession of pharmacy in the US, and by analogy, Australia. And it is more of a “white paper” than a straight article, but is recommended to Australian pharmacists to adapt to their forward plans. This approach by the PGA has resulted in a workplace that is not pharmacist-friendly, concentrating on supply rather than professional development. The business of pharmacy should be represented by the PGA; the profession of pharmacy should be represented by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA). The risk is that with such a divided profession, pharmacy will be “picked off” by other health professions and government.
Much of what is said is already evolving in Australia, but as yet remains haphazard and uneven in development.
This is a result of a division within pharmacy ranks itself, with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia hijacking the infrastructure of community pharmacies to deliver professional services that have minimal support of those pharmacists who actually have to provide the delivery.
New pharmacists have nowhere to go except to other environments such as GP practices and hospitals – or as many have already done so – leave the profession for a more rewarding career.
Government has played a big part in this uneven development because of its insistence in dealing with one pharmacy organisation to represent the entire profession.
The two organisations ought to be capable of mapping out a partnership that is mutually respectful and supportive.
The politics associated with greed and power are the dividing factors here, with the PGA being the main offender. In alienating itself from the profession, the PGA runs the risk of losing support from a range of pharmacists working in different capacities - from employees to owners.
The following article is worth printing out and rewritten to accord with your own objectives.
The Pharmacy Solution
As the market for basic health care expands, pharmacy chains will increasingly be called upon to provide simple medical services.
As the debate over health-care reform reveals extensive unmet needs for better basic medical services in the United States, an unexpected player with the power to drive significant change may be as close as the corner drugstore. With new incentives and business strategies coming into play to repair and improve the health-care system, local pharmacies are positioned to help meet the top two goals of reform: providing convenient, expanded access to medical care and controlling costs.
Pharmacies — many of them operated by large publicly traded companies such as Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart — have already begun to reach beyond their traditional role as pill dispensers to meet new demand from patients. Consumers, who have become more responsible for their own medical care in recent years, are turning to retail pharmacies for help in managing medical conditions and their out-of-pocket health-care spending. Walmart’s US$4 generic drugs program, for example, which offers a wide range of prescription medication and 1,000 over-the-counter medications at $4 for a 30-day supply, has had a major impact on making medication more affordable — especially because other pharmacies have quickly followed suit.
The innovation does not stop at pricing. Drugstores are experimenting with in-store clinics, wellness programs, health screenings, and disease management services. In one notable program, the city of Asheville, N.C., has been using local pharmacists to provide free counseling and coaching to diabetes patients, generating substantial savings and health improvement. More recently, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration launched a similar experiment dubbed the “Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative” in an attempt to integrate evidence-based clinical pharmacy services into the management of high-risk and high-cost patients.
There’s no question that pharmacies could play an even greater role in providing a wide range of basic health-care services in a convenient, cost-effective way. But to reach their full potential to ease the current health-care crisis, pharmacies will have to overcome certain barriers. Some of these constraints, such as regulations limiting the level of service pharmacies can provide, have been imposed by regulators. Others are self-imposed and are designed to accommodate physicians and health insurers. In the current reform climate, these barriers are likely to erode, resulting in new opportunities for the pharmacy to become a critical partner in the restructuring of health care.
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10103?pg=all
Research Reports
Dr Andrew Byrne & Associates: Tranquillizer use rife amongst OTP subjects world-wide, most legally prescribedPractice Development
Neil Retallick: Are the discounters impacting community pharmacy beyond margin erosion? | open full screen
Kay Dunkley - BPharm, Grad Dip Hosp Pharm, Grad Dip Health Admin, MPS, MSHPA: Support services for pharmacists and doctors in the United Kingdom – Part 3 Royal Medical Benevolent Fund | open full screen
Staff Writer: Catch the early wave in 2012 and secure your valuable CPD Credits at the Guild Pharmacy Academy – NSW Convention | open full screen
Information Technology
Dr David More: Australian Health Information Technology LinksIndigenous Health
Preventive Medicine
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