This chapter explores how management skills are crucial for pharmacists in today's evolving healthcare landscape. It busts common myths about business in pharmacy and highlights the importance of a management perspective for better patient care and outcomes.
Expected outcomes:
Early 20th Century: Pharmacists compounded medications and advised on minor ailments.
Mid-20th Century: Mass production of drugs reduced compounding; pharmacists became dispensers.
Late 20th Century: Clinical pharmacy emerged, emphasizing pharmacists as therapeutic advisors.
Present Day: Pharmacists are integrated into healthcare teams, providing services and managing patient outcomes.
Pharmacists have evolved from compounders to advisors and managers, adapting to changes in healthcare.
Pharmaceutical care isn't just clinical; it's about managing patients' pharmacotherapy to prevent problems.
MTM focuses on helping patients maximize drug therapy benefits through compliance, education, and disease management.
MTM is now a key component in pharmacy care services because of Medicare legislation
Pharmacy is ethically inconsistent with good business: Most businesses operate ethically.
Business lacks ethical standards: Business practices are governed by standards.
Quality is secondary to profit: Resource allocation ensures more people receive better care.
A good pharmacist is a "clinical purist": Managing resources is essential for clinical effectiveness.
Strategic planning leads to higher sales and profitability in community pharmacies
Help pharmacists gain entry-level jobs to higher-level administrative positions
Pharmacists manage staff, workflow/workloads, and improve better patient outcomes.
In today's healthcare environment, pharmacists need management skills to optimize productivity, reduce errors, and improve patient outcomes.
Accounting: Tracking transactions to manage finances and ensure compliance.
Finance: Planning and managing funds for new services and profitability.
Economics: Evaluating resource allocation, such as staffing and investments.
Human Resources: Optimizing employee productivity through training and motivation.
Marketing: Identifying competitive advantages and targeting consumer bases.
Operations Management: Designing workflow and managing inventory.
A: Management skills are important because now pharmacists need to provide quality patient care while maintaining an appropriate level of profit for the facility they work at. This is in light of increasing health costs.
A: Helping patients adhere to drug therapy, providing patient wellness programs, and become more intimately in disease management and monitoring are some of MTMs goals.
A: Yes, good business and good patient care are almost entirely mutually dependent. Good management practices allow for better resource allocation, efficient workflow, and higher quality service delivery, all of which benefit patients. By being able to allocate capital properly, the pharmacist can invest in new technolgies beneficial to the field.
A: Unfortunately, as a result of doing so, that pharmacist will be less effective and clinical outcomes drop due to not understanding how the health system flows.
Pharmacy students, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy managers.
The book addresses the evolution of pharmacy practice and the increasing need for management skills in the context of pharmaceutical care and medication therapy management movements.
