Pharmacist panel suggests that workloads are becoming more sophisticated

According to a recent press release, business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan recently pre-selected a panel of roughly 15 participants practicing in the healthcare pharmacy industry to garner superior understanding of how the role of the pharmacist, information technology, patient management services, and future trends have evolved in modern times.

After analyzing the participants' responses, it seems that in past years, pharmacists' responsibilities were fairly straightforward. While the physician was responsible for meeting with the patient, analyzing symptoms and prescribing a course of treatment, pharmacists' roles were related solely to product orientation.

However, the press release goes on to mention that, largely because of circumstances created in the United States' economic downturn, pharmacists' roles have evolved from solely distributing medication to more detailed and challenging patient-focused responsibilities.

For example, while some may have suggested that the ease and convenience of patronizing online pharmacies would simplify the workload for traditional professionals operating from brick-and-mortar pharmacies, the panel participants suggested they are still considered to be trusted experts in their field.

Consequently, although there are fewer pharmacists to complete these duties right now because of hard economic times, these healthcare professionals are becoming responsible for new tasks including managing healthcare costs and disease states as well as providing patient counseling.

Considering the added burdens that the panel described, it would be wise for both pharmacies and medical facilities to partner with a medical technology consulting company to implement electronic medical records and eprescribing software. By taking this measure, the medication alerts and instant access to full clinical histories afforded through this technology will allow healthcare providers to keep better track of patient health states to avoid errors while transitioning to a more sophisticated workload.
