There is a estimated 40,000 people commit suicide in our country every year… and there is a estimated 16,000 die of overdoses .. normally a cocktail of legal meds, illegal substances and alcohol and since .. as a country .. we don’t track how many of these deaths are actually suicide by drug overdose.
Prescribers are often taken to task over their pts that die from a drug overdose…BUT… typically no healthcare professional is held accountable for a pt , under their care… that commits suicide by any other means.
Let’s face it… taking more medication than prescribed or taking less than is prescribed is NON-COMPLIANCE..
The end result of non-compliance is the same… deteriorating quality of life and eventually death..
We have seemed to reach a point where we are interfering with certain class of pt being compliant because all of sudden we have become “uncomfortable” in filling legit Rxs of certain categories of medications.
30+ yrs ago… our society was all gung-ho about DISEASE PREVENTION… now we are gung-ho about DISEASE MANAGEMENT… because we miserly failed in helping pts with disease prevention.
Should we rethink why some of us are in healthcare… how many are more interested in their personal financial health… than the pt’s physical health… I recently saw a post by a Pharmacist… stating that s/he had no interest in giving vaccinations and studied pharmacy because that way s/he could be a DOCTOR and wouldn’t have to directly deal with patients..
We were eating lunch at a local restaurant and started talking to the female waitstaff and come to find out that she had got her nursing degree in 2012 and never took her boards… because she said that everyone was so interested in money and places she worked was so understaffed that she claimed that she was unable to do appropriate pt care.
Maybe this why we spend more dollars per capita that other industrial nations and may not provide as good of care ?
Filed under: General Problems
Steve, there can be different ‘perspectives’ regarding healthcare. And, I will not say that one perspective is more ‘right’ than another. I can empathize with the pharmacist that said she had no interest in giving vaccinations. I, for one, do not, nor will I give vaccinations. First, I went into pharmacy at a time when pharmacists……were PHARMACISTS. They did not give vaccinations, but left that to the docs and nurses. I believe that vaccinations should be left to docs and nurses. Second, I don’t feel comfortable giving someone else an injection. I think it is an extra risk on the job and working for a chain it means the risk does not come with any extra pay.
We can also look at healthcare in capitalistic terms. It is mostly a service and providers sell their services to customers. In most societies in the Western world, transactions are based on exchange. I sell you something or provide a service in return for payment. If you take a deep look at it, nothing in this world is free. Someone has to pay. Pharmacists do not just become pharmacists to help people. They become pharmacists to help people and to reap payment for services rendered. I think a case can be made that our healthcare system is in a mess because it has gotten out of balance with too many people getting healthcare for ‘free’. The people getting healthcare for free or minimal payment are driving up the healthcare costs for the working middle class. Again, nothing is free. In a sense, we had a much better healthcare system when I was young and everyone paid cash for medical services. Was it fair that some people could not afford it? Well, is it fair that some people cannot afford it today? Just what is ‘fair’. There is not going to be a perfect healthcare system. A free healthcare system, like that in Europe, is most likely unsustainable. Just look at the mess the British healthcare system has become. Again, nothing is free. Someone has to pay! These socialistic systems are just shifting around who pays. Insurance, which in many respects a socialistic system, has been driving the cost of healthcare through the roof. Insurance companies siphon off a big chunk of healthcare dollars and provide nothing in return. And, they are driving up the cost of healthcare for everyone.