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Costs! In most pharmacies the single largest expense is drug costs. Other than the staff, there is nothing a lot more essential to a Pharmacy Director than drug costs. To administration, drug costs are probably the only headache with its roots in the pharmacy. So why work so challenging to manage drug costs? Why not just use anything that comes to marketplace or put everything on your formulary? The most crucial reason is patient safety. How can the pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and therapists keep track of EVERYTHING for every drug? It's just not feasible to track the proper dosage, dosage adjustments, side effects, administration technique, etc, for every drug. When the formulary has one or two drugs per class, there is much less opportunity for error. Another argument about drug cost management boils down to this: do you believe that you will find unlimited or limited resources offered for healthcare? At some point, you'll find limitations on resources. As such, the pharmacy requirements to be the top stewards of drug costs that it could be. Besides, in practice, who else is going to do it? The physician? The nurse? The truth is that managing the drug costs may be the responsibility of the pharmacy despite the fact that the pharmacy does not have 100% control more than those costs. As a wise pharmacist as soon as stated, "We can influence drug costs...not control them." So what can you do as an everyday pharmacist to influence drug costs? Plenty. Here are a few ideas: A. Therapeutic Interchange: Are therapeutic substitutions offered which are much less costly? If so, are you consistently generating the interchange? B. If your department doesn't have an critical interchange, do you take the time to contribute an idea? Can you aid by delivering a number of the necessary info to create a compelling P&T review? C. Physician conversation: Producing that call to the physician takes some time...and some guts. At times it's tough to handle a busy (and grouchy) physician who doesn't wish to be bothered...but you need to do it. The patients and also the hospital depend on you to assist make rational drug therapy recommendations. D. Are you generating a smart choice on every drug order you send to the wholesaler? The larger wholesalers all have a feature of their ordering systems that allow you to check if a generic (or cheaper generic) drug is offered for the item you're ordering. It normally also screens for contract compliance. Rather of assuming that the sticker you pulled off the last product is what you ought to buy this time, take a moment and double check. E. Are you keeping yourself educated on costs of drugs in your formulary? Off the top of one's head do you know that using drug X rather of drug Y will yield the exact same patient outcome but at much less cost? Are you curious about pharmacy technician salary ? Go to our site to know more about certified pharmacy technician salary.
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