One effect of the new health care legislation is to encourage individuals and families to seek out less expensive, comprehensive primary care in clinics and other settings offering a wellness approach to health. Basically, the incentive is to be well, stay well, address illness early, and stay out of emergency rooms and hospitals. It just makes sense!
Over the next 5 - 10 years you will see more and more settings in which a pharmacist will be delivering primary care with a wellness approach. Many pharmacists are already doing this. You probably know of pharmacies offering flu shots, other immunizations, nutrition counselling, hormone replacement consultations, diabetic counselling, weight-loss programs, smoking cessation programs, to name a few. This will expand even more into areas such as medication therapy management and prescriptive authority protocols.
Pharmacists have been underutilized in health care settings….but this is changing!
Be Well!