We need these same studies for big box pharmacies

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For who to read though? Bix box pharmacies already have this information and can probably calculate the exact workload down to the number of phone calls on the specific day of the error - So having this information to present to them is useless. And I doubt the average customer gives a crap seeing as they only care about two things - fast and cheap.

Regulatory bodies? I really don't know if this kind of intervention as far as workload/tech ratios is realistic though I think most pharmacists would support it.
 
there are states, North Carolina is one with tech to pharmacist limits. Hawaii also has limits.
 
"For who to read though? Bix box pharmacies already have this information and can probably calculate the exact workload down to the number of phone calls on the specific day of the error - So having this information to present to them is useless. And I doubt the average customer gives a crap seeing as they only care about two things - fast and cheap.
Regulatory bodies? I really don't know if this kind of intervention as far as workload/tech ratios is realistic though I think most pharmacists would support it."

No no no, I'm not talking about the workload statistics of the pharmacies. I'm talking about the workload as it correlates to patient outcomes. This, obviously, would be much more difficult to study as retail pharmacies do not deal with death in-house nor do they have thorough documentation of a patient's labs/co-morbidities/etc, so forth and so on.

I think you're missing my point. It wouldn't be information to present to anyone specifically. A long-term academic study that looks at the correlation between pharmacies with understaffing and high volume and the health of patients. It would have to be a national cohort with thousands of patients studied.

And to follow that, break down whose patients are healthier -- CVS or Walgreen's? Kroger or Wal-Mart? Which area of retail has the healthier patients? Independent or commercial? Retail or mail-order?

And this becomes valuable information not only for the consumer but also for the corporate money. If Rite Aid is last compared to CVS in patient outcomes, then investors, patients, consumer-advocates all have hard evidence on which pharmacies are creating a healthier patient population.

I've never seen any kind of widespread, large cohort study on this topic. I would be interested in the results.
 
Old Timer said:
there are states, North Carolina is one with tech to pharmacist limits. Hawaii also has limits.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think all states have statutes with limits for tech : pharmacist ratio. I was just licensed in Tennessee and there are tech limits for sure.

Interesting to know how volume of prescriptions might correlate to health outcomes. Or which corporation in the retail world has the greater outcomes relative to its competitors.
 
I had understoodyou to mean error rate not health outcomes but I didn't really read the article just assumed lol.
 
Old Timer said:
there are states, North Carolina is one with tech to pharmacist limits. Hawaii also has limits.
Click to expand...
it is a joke thou -
1. you can apply to increase the ration
2. They just cut hours instead of increasing RPh's
3. I have said it several times, when I worked retail, I would rather have 3 great techs than one more rph
 
It's been awhile since clinical literature, but wouldn't a study like that have too many confounders? Baseline health, switching pharmacies, compliance would have to be measured. The population you're studying is just too diverse.
 
Error rates you could calculate (and they probably do). But I don't think you can measure "overall health" in any discrete way across millions of patients. What sort of difference would there even be? A well staffed Walgreens' patients lived 3 months longer than a short staffed CVS? A store with no drive-thru had lower obesity rates than a store with a drive-thru? That would be a confounder. I'm really not sure what you're proposing to do.
 
Ackj said:
Error rates you could calculate (and they probably do). But I don't think you can measure "overall health" in any discrete way across millions of patients. What sort of difference would there even be? A well staffed Walgreens' patients lived 3 months longer than a short staffed CVS? A store with no drive-thru had lower obesity rates than a store with a drive-thru? That would be a confounder. I'm really not sure what you're proposing to do.
Click to expand...

Well, as you know, most studies don't give results as one individual. Clearly, the results data would be in aggregate. Well-staffed pharmacies over a period of 10 years produced a much healthier patient than the short-staffed pharmacies with the same volume. Now this might actually be something deemed as obvious but it would provide specific results on what it's like to have short-staffing in pharmacies.

I'm not sure where you pulled the drive-through correlation to obesity rates. Yes, also, I would like a study to home in on whether or not stores that sell more Skittles have patients with more Alzheimer's. Let me try to find other absurdities to deem as confounders.
 
PharmacistReb said:
Well, as you know, most studies don't give results as one individual. Clearly, the results data would be in aggregate. Well-staffed pharmacies over a period of 10 years produced a much healthier patient than the short-staffed pharmacies with the same volume. Now this might actually be something deemed as obvious but it would provide specific results on what it's like to have short-staffing in pharmacies.

I'm not sure where you pulled the drive-through correlation to obesity rates. Yes, also, I would like a study to home in on whether or not stores that sell more Skittles have patients with more Alzheimer's. Let me try to find other absurdities to deem as confounders.
Click to expand...
Where do we classify patients who visit 4 different pharmacies per month?
 
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