Community Pharmacy has a large number of scopes or approaches, which are related to patient counseling and patient drug control.
Drug Information about Their Action
Besides a proper understanding of biological and physical
science, community pharmacy also provides a grasp of chemistry, pharmacology,
toxicology, routes of administration, stability, and other information
regarding drugs.
The community pharmacy is an excellent institute and
an educational laboratory for physicians and pharmacists carrying out an
obligation to provide necessary and fully authoritative information on the drug.
Community pharmacy acquires knowledge through personal and individual contacts
with the physician but also from the pharmacy and therapeutic committee.
Community pharmacy also ensures the pharmaceutical quality of drugs and
dispensing of drugs and is also responsible for the selection of a suitable
product in the market.
Drug Utilization
Community pharmacy helps to develop charging policies
for pharmaceutical services. It should also be able to implement an adequate
system for stock and inventory control.
Community pharmacy also decides the proper regimen of the drug for the
patient. It also gives the knowledge of how to administer the drug to the
patient.
Stock control reports on prescription and controlled
drugs dispensed, drug purchases, inspection and improvement in operation, and other
aspects that demand attention.
Drug Distribution
Considerable quantities of drugs are localized
physically outside the pharmacy. It is necessary to have control over the internal
distribution of drugs for patients. The patients who are hospitalized may
require intensive drug therapy and controlled procedures which will allow rapid
rechecks of drug source and quality. The potentialities of automated dispensing
at the ward level bring further emphasis to the establishment of correct
controls for drug distribution in this situation.
Drug Selection
In the field of community pharmacy, rational drug
therapy plays an important role in the selection of drugs that will be given to
the patients to encounter the disease. It is defined as the use of an
appropriate, efficacious, safe, and cost-effective drug given for the right
indication, in the right dose and right interval of time, and for the right
duration of time (Dosage regimen).
It involves various types of activities like:
• Adoption of essential drugs concept.
• Training of health professionals (counseling of
health in Rational Drug Therapy/ Rational Drug Use).
• Maintenance of data based on clinical
guidelines.
• Consumer education and regulatory strategies if the
Rational Drug Use (RDU) is not proper it leads to illness, adverse drug
reactions (ADRs), and increase the cost of medication and treatment to the
patient. It is also known as the “Essential Drug Concept” (EDC).
Patient Counseling and Evaluating
Dialogues between patients and physicians regarding
the indication, proper use, and potential adverse effects of non-prescription drugs
(NPDs) should be different as compared, when if the physician has written the
prescription. In this era, the cost considerations are greater than ever, NPDs
should be considered and referred when appropriate, as alternatives to
prescription drugs.
Fig.1: Pharmacists Involved in Patient Counseling