Fundamentals of Pharmacy BUS 345

What I learned week 9 Melissa Mattison told us about her daily operations as a retail pharmacist. I was not aware of all the duties that pharmacists partake in every day. Usually every morning there are trucks to drop off orders that she must be present for. Her job is to make sure what they were billed for was what they received. Simultaneously throughout the day she is looking through several queues. There are problem queues, which mainly consist of insurance rejects, direct physician queues, and personal queues. It’s the pharmacists job to clear out all queues and fix any issues sooner than later. She is also listening to voicemails, checking the DUR’s drug utilization review, and checking if the drug is appropriate for the patient when orders come in. In addition, there are call lists such as adherence calls, that the pharmacist must call the patient and ask if you’ve taken your medication and if you have any questions. Diving deeper into this, there are pros and cons: from th...

“At a minimum, you should review your financial statements annually. You should be comparing your pharmacy’s performance to previous years (to see trends) and to industry standards (to see how you compare in the marketplace). “How up to date do most pharmacies keep their data trend wise, because you should always be looking for trends and growth, not just once a year? Are audits any different with pharmaceutical companies? Does the company have an internal self auditor? Or possibly a third party? Are pharmaceutical companies outstanding balances any larger than other companies because of the middleman with the insurance companies?

What I learned week 8 Courtney Doyle-Campbell This week, Miss Doyle-Campbell educated us about MTM, Medication Therapy Management. MTM is a program that helps you and your doctor make sure that your medications are working to improve your health. A pharmacist or other health professional will give you a comprehensive review of all your medications and talk with you about. MTM also fosters the relationship between physician and pharmacist because their services are depended upon pharmacists working collaboratively with physicians and other healthcare professionals to optimize medication use in accordance with evidence based guidelines. MTM services further demonstrate the push we’ve been seeing in the healthcare realm towards a “patient-oriented” focus. In fact, in the 1950’s pharmacists couldn’t even talk to patients, and it took until the 1960’s engaged in more dispensing as well as patient care.   A pharmacist or other health professional will give you a comprehensive r...

1.      Understanding communication is key, how do pharmacists work around patients who have a tendency of lying? 2.      With more and more communication being verbally exchanged, are there stricter patient physician/pharmacist confidentially regulations? 3.      Will it still be necessary to write down this information and keep it in a patient file, whether electronic or paper? Is there an issue with an abundance of information? 4.      Do you think that in the future, patient records and healthcare information, drugs, costs, outcomes, studies will be more available for the public? Eliminating the “secrecy” between the healthcare world and public

1. Is MTM service model function a system like six sigma that companies can choose willfully to engage in? Are there courses? 2. How many hospitals engage in MTM? 3. Because pharmacists are engaging in more patient care and gaining responsibilities? Will education have to increases, will pay? Because they are doing more of what physician are engaging with day to day 4. Is there a cost to the patient regarding MTM services? 5. Are these MTM services used on different platforms such as a hospital vs CVS/Walgreens? 6. I understand there can be a shift to educate staff and physicians/pharmacists on the MTM system?   What does this cost to the company?

What I learned week 7 Dr. Housman began with an introduction of a historical article from 1909 describing the relationship between physician and pharmacist. In the past, physicians would diagnose the patient and the pharmacist would simply just count the pills and give them to the patient. The physician diagnosed the patient, the pharmacist dispensed the pills, there was no relationship between the two to work in conjunction with the patient. Moving forward, Dr. Housman advised that there is now this relationship between the pharmacists and physicians to work together for the greater good of the patient; especially in a hospital setting where his background is from. Pharmacists are now getting face to face time with the patients, and it is highly encouraged. Yes, a physician is the one to diagnose the patient, but the pharmacist needs to know and understand the patient’s status, condition and other health conditions or factors that could potentially alter the prescribed dose ...

1. Do pharmacists have to invest in mal practice insurance? Is it as much as beginner physicians? 2.  ..."The study was the first to quantify benefits from including pharmacists in real-time drug order decisions for specific medications and dosages. It found that pharmacist participation cut the rate of preventable adverse drug events by 66% and saved the ICUs an estimated $270,000 per year." Essentially, who knows more about the drug and its effects, the physician or the pharmacist? 3. What are the different classifications of drugs? 4. When someone consumes more than the DDD, is this drug abuse? 5. Is the purpose of drug utilization to fight the need for drug therapy? I am confused as to what the article means by drug therapy

This week consisted of Dr. Siwale’s second presentation as well as a brief discussion of business analytics within the healthcare industry. To begin, I instantly made a connection within my workplace from a topic that Dr. Siwale discussed—compounding. Compounding in a pharmacy setting is the art and science of preparing personalized medications for patients. Compounded medications are made based on a practitioner’s prescription in which individual ingredients are mixed together in the exact strength and dosage form required by the patient. This method allows the compounding pharmacist to work with the patient and the prescriber to customize a medication to meet the patient’s specific needs. Dr. Siwale emphasized that with compounding, as well as every other step of the drug manufacturing process, the FDA has complete and strict control of. The FDA regulates the methods used to manufacture that drug, the facility it is produced in, the packaging, the labels, etc. Well, compoundin...

1. What careers are out there for healthcare data analytics? 2. By what year will all offices be required too transfer to electronic health care records? 3. What problems arise from this? Cyber security? Hackers? HIPAA? 4. Are there any current healthcare crises that predictive analytics is forecasting?

1. What pricing strategies are used to calculate what a drug costs to the consumer? 2.  I read in my industry report that biologics have a longer shelf life than traditional drugs, which makes them more and more favorable to produce for patent reasons. Why do biologics have a longer shelf life? Is there a chemical component? 3. How has the packaging requirements for pharmaceuticals changed ever since the Tylenol incident of the 80's? 4. What does say, CVS do with expired drugs on the shelves? Do they throw them away? Or do they send them back to the company for any rebates? And how does the company dispose of them?

There were several things this week that I learned about clinical trials and drug development, as well as how to take this knowledge and impress future businesses I apply to with terminology I've learned. The biggest thing career wise I learned this week is to really stay current with what's happening within the pharmaceutical world. This mean reading articles, even subscribing to pharmaceutical magazines. This also means getting to know the companies I plan to apply too. Knowing about the culture of a company is very important, because it directs how they do business. Dr. Priefer acknowledged that if you can throw out some terms when on an interview such as LD50, the amount of an ingested substance that kills 50 percent of a test sample, for example, this already puts you ahead of the other applicants because its shows you understand the drug development process and a general knowledge of how things work; even if you know just the basics. So that takes care of the caree...

1. For new drugs, how do let the consumers know of long term side effects when sometimes they've only been testing for 8-10 years and do not know the lifetime side effects? 2. Do companies have to keep testing and observing the drug for as long as it's on the market? 3. Is there a shortage of drugs from pharmaceutical companies because of the barrier to entry? 4. How many drugs can a company be working on at a time, or do they focus their attention to only one because it is timely and costly? 5. What are the legal effects in clinical testing if a person were to die? Is the person responsible for assumption of risk, or is the company held liable?

1. Who qualifies to participate in clinical trials? 2. Does the government or FDA have any guidelines on developing numerous drugs for one disease? For example, "There are already too many drugs for blood pressure, we do not need any more on the market." 3. On the other hand, are there any incentives to creating and manufacturing one drug for a certain disease over another?