A prescription for failure
Re “Let pharmacists prescribe,” Opinion, Oct. 22
The pharmacist today is the medications expert compared to other healthcare clinicians. However, allowing pharmacists to prescribe some drugs without a physician’s authorization will work only in a perfect world. Currently, licensed physicians cannot own a pharmacy because of a possible conflict of interest. Thus, what would keep a pharmacist from prescribing a medication to a patient that returns a greater profit than another? Specifically, a generic form of a drug costs less to the patient than a brand name; however, a greater profit can be made on the generic by the pharmacy. One would like to believe that all pharmacists are ethical. However, with the pressure of reducing costs, this scenario can become inevitable. The writers mean well in an academic sense but ignore the real business environment.
Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos
I have many interactions with pharmacists every day involving patient care and medication. I respect their expertise and consult with them often. They in turn respect my clinical skill and experience. They will alert me to possible interactions between drugs, allergies and cross allergies, and give me suggestions of alternatives. We all know there is a boundary that shouldn’t be crossed.
I as a doctor I am a clinician in the truest sense. In medicine, a doctor not only needs to know what treatment to begin with but also how to recognize and fix any complications that arise. That is what makes a clinician different. That is what the minimum of three years of residency experience and the continual interaction with patients give the clinician. It is quite easy to start giving a patient a medication for pneumonia. The difference comes when complications happen, when things aren’t going as planned, when to stay the course or to change. If pharmacists have the same experience with patients as a doctor in this respect, then it would be time for pharmacists to prescribe. Until then, no.
Vincent Hoang MD
Riverside
The writer is an assistant professor of internal medicine at the UC Riverside-UCLA School of Medicine.
