Online CPR Certification Blog
Include your Pharmacist in your Healthcare
Date: July 29th, 2015
Reasons to use just one Pharmacy
We all see multiple doctors in our lifetime. We see our primary care physician, and specialists, and emergency doctors. These doctors do not always know what the other doctors are using to treat us, but if we have all of our prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy then our pharmacists can alert us when something that has been prescribed for us might interact with something else we already take.
Doctors make mistakes. They are human and they can forget an allergy you have, or they can write a prescription in the wrong dosage. Your pharmacist is capable of seeing the prescription, and possibly stopping you from taking something that could harm you.
Your Pharmacist can save you money
Your pharmacist knows the drugs you have been prescribed, and they can inform you if there is a generic version of any of your medications. Generic versions of medicines are normally a lot cheaper than the name brand versions. Your pharmacist can determine if the active, and the inactive ingredients in a generic drug will be safe, and as effective, as the name brand version. Your pharmacist could save you hundreds of dollars on your prescriptions.
You can often get flu shots, and pneumonia shots, at your local pharmacy. Your pharmacist can give you the injection, and you save the cost of an office visit to your doctor.
Your pharmacy may offer a lot of other health screenings like for blood pressure, elevated blood sugars, and cholesterol screenings. If you go to the doctor to have these tests, the will cost you a lot more, and they will give you the same results. If you have a test at the pharmacy, and the pharmacist thinks the results warrant a visit to your doctor you can be assured that they will instruct you to see a doctor for further testing.
Your Pharmacist can help you stay on your medicine regimen
You are likely to see your pharmacist between three and ten times in a month. You more than likely do not see your doctor that often. Your pharmacist can help you to stay on the course of treatment your doctor ordered, and they can even recognize signs that the treatment is working properly for you.
Your pharmacist can tell you at what time of day you should take a prescribed medicine in order for the medicine to be most beneficial to you. Some medications should be taken in the morning, some in the evening, some need to be taken with food, and some need to be taken on an empty stomach. The pharmacist can make sure that you are taking your medication properly.
Your Pharmacist can help you see signs of drug reactions
Whenever you take a new medication, you stand the risk that your body will adversely react to the medication. Your pharmacist can tell you what the common reactions to any given medication are, and they can tell you about the rare reactions that are seen in only a handful of patients.