Originally posted by carpe diem
Another thought on pharmacist/doctor relations.......
A well-trained pharmacist can find something to tweek on virtually any patient's medication profile, whether the patient is in the hospital or is an outpatient. I think the key is knowing what kind of "tweeking" is actually clinically significant and not just "the best way of many good ways".
Realizing that a particular therapeutic intervention is not clinically significant and then keeping quiet about it takes more wisdom, skill, and emotional intelligence than speaking up about something that may be "right by the book or experience" but of minimal benefit clinically.
Agreed. I've spent enough time in the pharmacy to see that drugs/dosages can be "tweaked" to optimize outcomes but have learned enough to also let it go and not undermine the DO/MD. In the end, as long as it's not making a huge difference in TO, it's really not worth wasting a physician's time to call/page them, and discuss the matter with them. Maybe if you were doing rounds with them you could put in your "four cents - lol" and make them see your point, but it's quite another thing to page/call a phys to have a chat about it. As a pharmacy intern, I hate to be bothered with insignificant arguments like that as well. Mind you, as of right now I can only answer some basic questions, etc (under the pharmacist of course), but I see it with our grad interns too. Once you BECOME a pharmacist, most of you will have learned to ignore little things like that. If anything, in a retail setting, you may mention it to a patient that her dosage may need adjusting and that next time they see their phys, to talk to them about it. Other than that, the MDs, DOs, DDS, pharmDs, BS, RPh's (whatever/whoever) doesn't have enough time to care about stuff like that. Especially in a HVpharmacy;
I decided to put this seperate because it's kind of important for some ppl to grasp:
Personally, the only real thing I care about is the big mistakes, not the small ones (That is, the "tweaks," not to be mistaken for detail)
peace my healthcare peeps...