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Patient Navigation – An old-new Opportunity for Pharmacists
i2P has commented before that community pharmacy has (and still is) the epicentre for primary health care. In many ways it was the original patient-centred home and it had a market share approaching 70 percent in the mid to late 1970’s when it was first surveyed. The entry point to primary health care within community…
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Retail Disruption Coming – Around the Corner and Around the World
I2P has always given direction for community pharmacy well in advance of the actual events liable to be disruptive or transformative. About four years ago we set out to define a “new paradigm pharmacy” that would cater for the needs of a community pharmacy and to include an emphasis on clinical services and the smart…
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The Opportunity Cost of Waiting
A recent report published by Harvard Medical School highlighted the following patient cost in attending a medical appointment:Total time involvement….121 minutes; which broke down to Travel time….37 minutes and Clinic time……84 minutes. Within the clinic time segment, only 20 minutes was spent with the doctor. Those figures, extrapolated to represent the entire US population amounted to…
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Patient impressions
Do we really understand how your patients perceive us? Experts agree that our patients form an opinion of our practice in a matter of seconds. And some of the latest research on first impressions suggest that it might be within the blink of an eye. I’m not referring to the pharmacy building here….I’m referring to…
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Consumerism, health care costs and patient-centred “homes”
Health objectives in Australia are shifting from fee for service models to capitation models in a bid to simultaneously improve quality and reduce costs. The idea of a patient-centred “home” led by a doctor is touted as the principal model of care. i2P has always pointed to the fact that any business model led by…
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Caring as a competitive advantage
It’s 3:28am and our teething daughter’s fever is raging through her shivering body. Her cheeks burn red and our hearts burn with desperation and hope.My tearful wife gives our baby some medicine, and I hear her silent prayers caress every drop entering our sick baby’s mouth. ‘I hope this will help you, sweetheart.’ What was…
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Do your patients use their blood pressure medications correctly?
A recent analysis of the use of blood pressure medications within the United States Medicare system reveals that 26 per cent either skip doses, or stop taking their drugs entirely, thereby increasing their risk of heart attack and stroke. Other research within that system shows that up to 25 per cent of new prescriptions for…
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Good Pharmacy Practice – It solves the Problems of Moving Forward
Pharmacy Practice is undergoing a review process in Australia because the primary source of income (the PBS) for community pharmacy has reached the end of its life-cycle. The future of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme indeed looks bleak so re-modelling of dispensing services is unavoidable. Many aspects of Australian pharmacy practice have been one of the best…
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It’s time for a new prescription
The community pharmacy is fighting to survive amid aggressive price disclosures, high expenses and pressures from wholesalers. Yet, the treatment of slashing costs and pushing discounts only focuses on the symptom of financial turmoil, rather than treating the root cause of the problem. The financial turmoil facing the pharmacy industry is a symptom of a…
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Throw The Map Away And Just Use The Compass
One of my hobbies is genealogy and I find it deeply satisfying when I can apply some areas of this discipline to my professional activities. For example, the origin of surnames for when I am involved in a formal interview, I will often use the patient’s surname as a conversation starter by asking the patient…