What can your Pharmacist do for you? More and more each day!

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacies have played an integral role in providing front-line care to patients when many primary care providers closed their offices during quarantine. With the development of COVID-19 vaccination and testing programs, pharmacies showed how important their services were to the healthcare industry, offering an alternative, highly accessible destination for care.

As healthcare continues to evolve, pharmacists have gained tremendous traction towards their evolution into healthcare providers. In addition to dispensing and managing medications, pharmacists have the knowledge and skills to provide many preventative and diagnostic healthcare services similar to COVID testing with the help of point-of-care testing (POCT).

Point-of-care testing empowers healthcare providers to use effective, fast technology to aid their decision-making to improve patient health. With tests that offer near immediate results outside of laboratories, pharmacies are increasingly offering this public health service to promote prevention, early detection, and disease management.

There are a number of tests that can be performed by pharmacies under the collaboration with physicians. These physicians develop an agreement, called a collaborative practice agreement, with pharmacists, giving pharmacists the authority to provide these additional patient care services like point-of-care testing.

Additional opportunities for POCT, outside of COVID-19, include:

• HIV/Hepatitis B
• Influenza A + B
• Strep throat
• Diabetic A1c
• Cholesterol monitoring

Pharmacists can provide rapid responses following these tests by offering prescription treatments, such as antivirals for influenza, or referring patients to their primary care physicians for further chronic disease care.

Ultimately, the role of the pharmacist in patient care has broadened during the pandemic, and the community pharmacy has become a destination for patients with a variety of needs.

How does this benefit you?

Developing these services increases your access to better care. Nowadays, community pharmacies greatly outnumber primary care physician clinics, giving patients options for care when access to physicians is not available especially in the rural or remote areas. Pharmacies are well-positioned to provide POCT to enhance disease state understanding and management.

Everyday new tests and technologies become available to aid in the advancement of healthcare for all.

One new and emerging topic in pharmacy that can expand the role of point-of-care testing and individualized medicine is pharmacogenomics. Pharmacogenomics encompasses the study of how our body’s genes affect the ways in which drugs work and our response to them. Although these tests are not used extensively, pharmacists have the expertise in this area to help physicians develop an individualized medication regimen that will be most effective based on the results. How cool!

Your Ohio Apothecary Pharmacies are in the process of implementing these services in the near future! Stay tuned for further updates.