E-DRUG: Prescribing and dispensing in one hand? (13)
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In the Indian Health Service in the United States, we had a program that
trained pharmacists to provide primary care to patients. We found
interestingly that when the pharmacist stepped into this role they were
not as efficient in providing pharmaceutical services as when they were
not in that role. What I mean, is that we found that the pharmacist
that was prescribing seemed to miss more things that were related to
potential drug problems than when they were only in the role of the
pharmacist. Thus, the Indian Health Service developed a unwritten
policy with those of us that had this specific training not to do both,
that is prescribe and dispense. We would share this responsibility with
the provider we might be working with. Again, the physician would fill
and dispense what we would prescribe and we would fill and dispense what
they would prescribe, thus an extra set of eyes were always evaluating
care of the patient.
CAPT. Bill Boyce, Ret. USPHS
Oregon State University
College of Pharmacy
E-mail: bill.boyce@oregonstate.edu