Currently, I'm evaluating ways to expand our pharmacy services to our outpatient dialysis units. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been especially progressive in allowing clinical pharmacists to act as primary caregivers in clinics serving patients with diabetes, lipid disorders, hypertension, and other conditions, says St. Peter. Now other hospitals, including HCMC, are joining in. St. Peter's husband, for example, assesses chronic stable patients on routine follow-up and recommends medications at the HCMC Endocrinology Clinic under clinic director Mehmood Kahn, M.D., who confirms his evaluations. I think many of the physicians now being trained are very comfortable with our role.
Some physicians probably feel uncomfortable.
It's a matter of getting to know those physicians, working with them, and gaining their trust. The expanding role of the pharmacist in patient care is also being felt in outpatient settings, even in the neighborhood drug stores. They are being trained to evaluate patients and know what to look for in terms of compliance, drug interactions and duplications, and dosage, particularly in patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Pharmaceutical care, both as a concept and a growing reality, is in many ways a natural evolution, given the high level of public trust and confidence pharmacists have always enjoyed. With the additional training provided through Pharm.