Ways on How to Improve Patient Care in a Pharmacy
Another name for a pharmacy is a chemist. It can be referred to as a retail shop that offers pharmaceutical drugs to patients. They give drugs to patients when they have been diagnosed by a doctor. On the other hand, they may give patients drugs over the counter by simply giving them a simple diagnosis. However, giving drugs over the counter is not always acknowledged. At the pharmacy, the pharmacist is in charge and they oversee that all prescriptions are fulfilled. They also offer counseling to patients on how they are going to take the drugs and when they are going to take it. There are pharmacies that dispense drugs online while others give drugs on a physical shop.
Nowadays, the health care system is shifting towards giving quality and efficiency when serving their clients. However, this can also be possible for the pharmacy shops. They can join in and pay a role in medication management. They may also improve their services by giving quality patient education. There are other ways that pharmacies can use to offer better patient care. Explained below are those techniques.
They can use technology so that they can identify patients who may require extra counseling. You may not directly know whether a patient requires extra care. However, with the right direction, it will be easy to offer help. Look at the data available. You can get the data from the information that they give when they visit the pharmacy. You may be able to tell a patient who may benefits from counseling. When giving information, make sure that the patients are aware on how to stick to their medication regimens. Get to your management system and identify those patients who suffer from diabetes, Cancer or hypertension. They may be regular customers to your shop because such patients use medicine on a daily. You can call them to come for a meeting. On the other hand, you can get their contact information and be sending information directly to them.
Make sure that you give time to medication therapy management. This is one way to focus on giving information to patients who are concerned about their prescriptions. There are other patients who may be bothered about their overall health. You may offer information on single prescriptions. You may also take up to an hour counseling a patient every month to ensure that they understand the medication they are taking. This way, you will achieve better patient care. You will end up having more customers on board. Other crucial information that you can give to your patients may include medication adherence and the patient-pharmacist relationship. Since most patients do not ask any questions about the prescriptions when they leave the doctor’s office or a pharmacy, you can take that chance to educate them. Some of them have these questions but the doctors are too busy to deliver such information.
There are cases when patients stopped taking their medication for different reasons. However, some do not consult their doctors. You can achieve patient care is you counsel such people. Give them information about the consequences they would get if they disrupt their treatment.