Have you ever thought that speaking to someone with prestige would be intimidating? Especially when that someone is a lawmaker?

I honestly thought it would be.  Growing up outside Washington D.C. gave me a decent idea of what I was getting myself into. I mean, I once talked baseball with George W. Bush on the South Lawn at the White House when I was 12, but that didn’t involve discussing actual laws that can impact many people’s lives.  Most changes we see in our communities come from the local level too, and considering we only had a short time to discuss with district lawmakers, the pressure was building.

Luckily, I was part of the Ohio Pharmacists Association’s Student Legislative Day and they prepared us very well. Coming into the day, I was just expecting to be a pawn in moving forward legislature that I had minimal to no idea about, but I was wrong.  The morning consisted of The Ohio Pharmacists Association going through each piece of legislature in depth. This helped broaden my knowledge and let me formulate my own opinions and talk about legislature I would have like to see passed.  They even brought it the lawmakers behind a couple pieces of the legislature to understand the bills, why they came up with them, and why/how they can be useful to not only bettering the profession of pharmacy, but to better the lives of patients.  The afternoon involved talking to the local Senator and Representative.

When we think of politics, we almost look at is as grown adults arguing with each other and holding their breathes until they get their way.  That idea implanted in the back of mind and gave me hesitation as to how am I going to talk to these people when they might not have care as to what I’m saying.  Boy, I was wrong.  Not only was I wrong, but sitting there in my white coat talking about pharmacy issues, made me the intimidator.  Senator Charleta Taveres was extremely receptive to all our ideas and input. Senator Tavares was very discussion oriented and you could tell she wants to help people.  Now will she vote in our favor? That has yet to be determined.  If she does, I definitely will be taking some modest credit.

Politics and legislature are intended to help people. Do we always have the way of approaching issues and solutions? Not one bit.  Finding common ground or a starting point, by having open discussions and not arguing is always a good start.

I definitely advise people to advocate for themselves, for their profession, and for others.  Even if what you are advocating for opposes what I am advocating for. Don’t be the person who complains about something if you haven’t tried to fix that something.

“Do you have any questions for the pharmacist today?”

We have all heard this whenever we go pick up a prescription from our local pharmacy.  It almost makes us feel as though we are being asked if we want to meet the Wizard of Emerald City.  Sometimes it can be intimidating, but most of the time, we just want to get in and out and get along with our busy lives. Sometimes, the pharmacist wants to come talk to the patient, whether the medication changes or the doctor wants a message relayed to the patient.  What about every time a new prescription is brought to the pharmacy, you HAVE to talk with the pharmacist?

Some states have this into law currently, and Ohio is discussing following suit.  This post isn’t to persuade you, but to lay down possible pros and cons, and hope you come up with your own conclusion.  Society doesn’t do this enough and would rather have you side one way or another rather than sitting down to discuss.

What makes this idea good?

• More information is released to the patient
• Questions from the patient might arise from talking to the pharmacist
• Minimize errors and adverse affects that negatively impact the patient’s livelihood
• Protects the pharmacist and their role in healthcare
• Reinforces medication knowledge for the pharmacist

What makes this a bad idea?

• Increased workflow interruptions in the pharmacy
• Counseling redundancy
• If a smaller, lesser staffed pharmacy, waiting for a pharmacist dealing with another patient may cause the patient to wait longer to talk with the pharmacist
• Increased wait times for medications due to pharmacies having to account for potential disruptions
• Take autonomy away from the pharmacist

Questions and/or Concerns?

• How will this idea impact pharmacists in hospitals and with mail order pharmacies, where there is minimal patient interaction?
• Will reimbursement come into play?
• How much time does the pharmacist have to give to counseling? 30 seconds? 3 minutes?
• Does this force a pharmacist to become more of a glorified cashier to keep customers moving?
• Will this bother patients if wait time at smaller pharmacies increase due to lack of resources and push these people to larger retail chains?

Overall, discussing this topic in a forum setting brought many ideas and points of views into play to generate these ideas.  It’s much more healthier than person A telling person B that they are wrong, only to have person B rebuttal person A by telling them they are wrong.  Not everything is black and white.  Mandatory pharmacist counseling is one of those gray areas.  If the idea becomes legislature, and possibly law, will it drastically impact our lives? Would you prefer the pharmacist coming up to talk to you instead of giving you the option? Pharmacists aren’t the Wizard of Emerald City, more like the man behind the curtain. Don’t be intimidating, we will always be there to help, whether it’s mandatory or not.

A new press release from Walmart this past week has the company joining the fight against opioid abuse and the current opioid crisis in the country. For those not clicking on the press release, Walmart will be handing out little packets with every Class II opioid prescription, or free with request, that will neutralize the medication while turning it into a unusable gel that is safe even if still ingested.  The disposal system is call DisposeRX and it works by filling the prescription vial with water and adding the packet powder and shaking for 30 seconds. Quick, simple, easy, and effective.

How does this impact you?

According to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (Page 24) 53% of opioid prescription misuse comes from getting the medication from a family member or friend.  Instead of having a prescription sit in the medicine cabinet because not all the medication was used, a person could use the packet to make the medication worthless and either throw it away in the trash or turn it in to a medication disposal facility. Having something as simple as this would cut down medication abuse and misuse drastically.

How does this impact the profession of pharmacy?

The development of this technology allows pharmacist to help combat the opioid crisis more efficiently as well.  In addition to the packet distribution, pharmacist can counsel patients on medication safety and disposal.  Simple counseling points added to correct use of the medication disposal packets, could drastically help combat misuse by the user or even a user’s family member.  Not every pharmacy has a medication take back program and some chains only have medication take back days a few times each year.  This could be extremely beneficial in rural areas where people don’t have access to many hospitals, pharmacies, or even their own county sheriff’s office to dispose of their unused medications. Having something that is able to be safely disposed in the trash could help many of those who just have unused medications stockpile.

What does this mean for the future?

I believe other pharmacies will eventually follow through.  This is dependent on how much of a decrease there is of at home opioid abuse. I think even a decrease from 53 percent to 48 percent in at home opioid misuse will get other pharmacy chains to follow through. Walmart has 4,700 pharmacies across the United States and is the third largest retail pharmacy chain in the United States behind only the pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens.  If progress is shown and the even bigger chains get involved in this medication disposal system, numbers in at home misuse of medications could drop drastically and potentially save lives or prevent some from going down a dark path.

For more information feel free to visit the DisposeRx website.

Pharmacy is the most accessible health care profession. Doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, etc. all require making appointments and taking chunks of time out of one’s daily life.  Pharmacies are one call away or maybe even a five minute detour during a grocery shopping trip to ask a medical question, or to see if there is there is something that could be used to help their sick child and avoid having to spend time, energy, and money by going to the doctor’s office or an urgent care center.

Pharmacy is fast-paced. In 2016 4,065,479,343 prescriptions were filled at retail locations in the United States. Quick number crunching equates to over 11 million prescriptions per day, or 128 prescriptions filled per second in the United States. At my community pharmacy, we fill over 2500 prescriptions per week over the course of 82 hours, more than 30 per hour. This happens all while discussing medications with customers/patients, reviewing medication lists, dealing with insurance companies, and ensuring the customer/patient is getting optimal care among many other things.

Pharmacy is evolving. In addition to the retail side of pharmacy, pharmacists are becoming integral parts of the the health care professions in places like hospitals, or doctor’s offices.  More pharmacists and doctors make what are called collaborative practice agreements and these allow pharmacists to work side by side with physicians to make the best treatment options available for patients.  This allows physicians to focus more on acute or new care and allowing pharmacists to help manage chronic conditions and provide better results for the patients.  Pharmacists are now becoming key members and respected members in the health care field.

Pharmacists are the medication experts. That m&m sized pill you are popping in your mouth? Pharmacists know all about it. They know the good it can cause, as well as the bad it can cause. They know how, or if, it can affect or be affected by other medications or diet.  They can tell you the best way to take it, the safest way to take it and how to remind yourself when to take it. Depending on the type of post-secondary schooling, pharmacists are in school for at least six years after high school.  Some even do additional learning after being done with undergraduate and pharmacy school. Not only do pharmacists know about medications, they learn about everything being put into your body. That sports drink you have at your baseball game? They can tell you all about it. That hot dog and snow cone you get after your baseball game? They can tell you about those too.

Pharmacy is and will continue growing as a vital member of healthcare. Pharmacists can help patients save costs by helping decreasing medications costs or saving trips to doctor’s offices or emergency rooms. Pharmacists can ensure patient safety with medication reviews and medication management. Pharmacists can be counted on by peer members in healthcare to make judgments to better the quality of life for the patients being seen.