Medicare Part D open enrollments start in a few days. Aren't you excited?
Personally, I'm getting a little tired (already) of people asking me questions about which plan to enroll in. I have my canned response to the question. Visit www.medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE for help in determining which plan works best for you.
I don't know why people think that a pharmacist wants to help them determine which plan to select.
Actually, I do.
They are too lazy to do the work themselves. They would rather pawn the responsibility off on to somebody else so they can complain about it later if things start to cost too much.
Isn't that the American way?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Belated breast cancer awareness
It's a little late, but I thought I should do my part to help on the issue of breast cancer awareness. After seeing all of the emails and Facebook updates and so-on and so-forth, I thought that I would share a picture of some of my favorite boobies....
C'mon, it was just Halloween a few days ago. Have a sense of humor.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tonight's heroin
I'd like a pack of insulin syringes. Thirty-one gauge. One-hundred cc's.
She almost had it right. Units, not cc's. Units.
If you've been in pharmacy for more than fifteen minutes, you know that this patient/customer isn't diabetic. She's injecting illicit drugs.
One of my technicians knew of her. Said she was busted for crack several years ago. From her looks and actions tonight, I'd say that she was messing with heroin now.
This is a situation that pharmacists face day-in, day-out. Do we or do we not sell syringes to injection drug users? My employer does not have a clear policy on the matter, so it falls on the individual pharmacist to make the call.
A few weeks ago I was reading the September/October issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. There was a case study on a female prostitute who developed a case of MRSA after reusing syringes because the pharmacy where she usually bought her individual packs of syringes changed their policy to sell only full boxes. No more packs to sell to the drug users. The prostitute's MRSA hospitalized her for six or seven weeks. And we can assume that the hospital or the taxpayers of the state ended up footing the bill.
There were two other articles in that issue that discussed syringe sales and syringe access programs. That got me thinking....
One of the arguments in favor of supplying clean syringes to injection drug users is that it decreases the transmission risk of certain diseases (hepatitis, HIV). By ensuring that injection drug users have clean needles, we are protecting public health.
Sounds like a good role for pharmacists... preventing disease transmission.
But I'm a pharmacist. It's my job to monitor the use of controlled substances and try to keep people from abusing them. Last time I looked, heroin was a Schedule I controlled substance. The worst of the worst.
If I sell syringes to this junkie, I'm enabling the abuse of this controlled substance. In my state, I have to report the sales of all C-IIs thru C-Vs to my state's prescription drug monitoring program. We try to control the abuse of narcotics by monitoring their sales. As a responsible pharmacist, I can't enable the abuse of C-Is when I must report the sales of other controlled substances.
If I sell the syringes and the drug user ODs, am I liable for supplying the syringes to them?
If I don't sell the syringes and the person contracts a blood-borne disease because they reused dirty syringes, have I protected the public health?
By selling syringes to injection drug users, will I attract more users to my pharmacy? Do I put my staff at risk by having more drug abusers come to my pharmacy to get their needles?
These are questions that pharmacists have every day when the question of selling syringes to injection drug users is posed.
I don't have an answer for this question. The arguments for both sides of the issue make perfect sense to me. Down in my gut, I don't want to sell the syringes. I can't justify the enabling of the abuser's addiction. But then I think, what if somebody I know gets HIV because this person used a dirty needle? I could have prevented that.
Like I said, I don't have an answer for this dilemma. But why does it have to be a dilemma? Why is this something that falls into the hands of the pharmacist to decide?
From the articles I've read, the consensus seems to be in favor of syringe exchange programs. I'm cool with that. But let's not put the pharmacists in the middle of this public health issue. We always hear about expanding access to care. This is one area where I wouldn't mind seeing the access to care expanded to include the local Circle-K or any other retailer.
She almost had it right. Units, not cc's. Units.
If you've been in pharmacy for more than fifteen minutes, you know that this patient/customer isn't diabetic. She's injecting illicit drugs.
One of my technicians knew of her. Said she was busted for crack several years ago. From her looks and actions tonight, I'd say that she was messing with heroin now.
This is a situation that pharmacists face day-in, day-out. Do we or do we not sell syringes to injection drug users? My employer does not have a clear policy on the matter, so it falls on the individual pharmacist to make the call.
A few weeks ago I was reading the September/October issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. There was a case study on a female prostitute who developed a case of MRSA after reusing syringes because the pharmacy where she usually bought her individual packs of syringes changed their policy to sell only full boxes. No more packs to sell to the drug users. The prostitute's MRSA hospitalized her for six or seven weeks. And we can assume that the hospital or the taxpayers of the state ended up footing the bill.
There were two other articles in that issue that discussed syringe sales and syringe access programs. That got me thinking....
One of the arguments in favor of supplying clean syringes to injection drug users is that it decreases the transmission risk of certain diseases (hepatitis, HIV). By ensuring that injection drug users have clean needles, we are protecting public health.
Sounds like a good role for pharmacists... preventing disease transmission.
But I'm a pharmacist. It's my job to monitor the use of controlled substances and try to keep people from abusing them. Last time I looked, heroin was a Schedule I controlled substance. The worst of the worst.
If I sell syringes to this junkie, I'm enabling the abuse of this controlled substance. In my state, I have to report the sales of all C-IIs thru C-Vs to my state's prescription drug monitoring program. We try to control the abuse of narcotics by monitoring their sales. As a responsible pharmacist, I can't enable the abuse of C-Is when I must report the sales of other controlled substances.
If I sell the syringes and the drug user ODs, am I liable for supplying the syringes to them?
If I don't sell the syringes and the person contracts a blood-borne disease because they reused dirty syringes, have I protected the public health?
By selling syringes to injection drug users, will I attract more users to my pharmacy? Do I put my staff at risk by having more drug abusers come to my pharmacy to get their needles?
These are questions that pharmacists have every day when the question of selling syringes to injection drug users is posed.
I don't have an answer for this question. The arguments for both sides of the issue make perfect sense to me. Down in my gut, I don't want to sell the syringes. I can't justify the enabling of the abuser's addiction. But then I think, what if somebody I know gets HIV because this person used a dirty needle? I could have prevented that.
Like I said, I don't have an answer for this dilemma. But why does it have to be a dilemma? Why is this something that falls into the hands of the pharmacist to decide?
From the articles I've read, the consensus seems to be in favor of syringe exchange programs. I'm cool with that. But let's not put the pharmacists in the middle of this public health issue. We always hear about expanding access to care. This is one area where I wouldn't mind seeing the access to care expanded to include the local Circle-K or any other retailer.
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