To help guarantee health care reform that reduces costs and builds "health care teams that work" (to use President Barack Obama's words), pharmacists must play a key role in the planning process being undertaken by the federal government.
The health care reform principles being considered are well grounded in developing strategies to promote the prevention and management of chronic diseases. Essential to the success of those strategies is the fully integrated role of pharmacists, the country's most accessible health care professionals.
Patients' easy access to their pharmacists results in adherence to medications, a critical issue in disease management and control. In the United States, medications comprise approximately 10 percent of health care expenditures, and a staggering $117 billion of this is attributed to medication misuse and patient noncompliance. Adherence to, or the appropriate use of, medications is especially problematic for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
In addition to their role in dispensing medications, pharmacists provide chronic disease management programs that promote patient wellness, reduce costs and prevent medication errors. With extensive expertise in appropriate medication therapy and an understanding of adverse effects of medications, pharmacists can identify drug interactions, administer lifesaving immunizations and alert patients if they need more urgent care.
In community pharmacies in almost every state today, pharmacists customize their roles in direct patient care, coaching patients on disease, diet, health goals and the importance of properly taking their medicines. In groundbreaking programs, such as the Asheville Project in North Carolina and the P3 (Patients Pharmacists Partnerships) Program in Maryland (both diabetes management programs) pharmacists foster appropriate medication therapy management for the patients, complementing the treatment and counsel provided by a patient's physician.
The American Pharmacists Association Foundation's Ten City Challenge Project, which followed the Asheville model, showed a decrease in health care costs of $1,079 per patient compared with projected costs if the program had not been implemented. It also showed an increase in the number of patients achieving health care goals established by the American Diabetes Association.
