If you could see what I see

As the editor of Drug Store News, I am frequently reminded that the stories we report on extend far beyond the industry we cover. I often feel like if you could sit where I sit and see what I see, you’d find that the community pharmacist is a greatly underutilized component of our nation’s healthcare system; we could do a lot more to close the gap on provider access, lower the cost of care and ultimately improve health outcomes for millions of Americans just by enabling the pharmacist on the corner to practice at the top of their license.



That’s why we put together this special edition of Drug Store News, RxIMPACT — to help bring greater awareness of the full impact community pharmacy can have as our nation tries to improve an overburdened healthcare system.



Pharmacists do a lot more than just fill prescriptions. They engage in a practice called medication therapy management and work closely with patients to make sure that they take their medications the way they are supposed to. That is a major opportunity to improve health care — each year, our country spends almost $300 billion in additional costs related to this problem of nonadherence. MTM alone is returning about $12 in savings for every $1 invested.



Today, about two-thirds of the nation’s pharmacists are providing immunizations for flu and a number of other conditions — a role most could not fill about five years ago. Just using flu shots as an example, research conducted in 2012 demonstrated that immunizations performed in a community pharmacy setting, versus a physician’s office, saved about $31 per patient, and increased dramatically to about $83 in the case of high-risk patients with poly-chronic conditions and $107 per patient among seniors.



These are just two examples. In the pages that follow, we have compiled many others.



After reading this special report, I am certain you will see what I see — that community pharmacy can do a lot more to help improve health care.