You Can Save a Life
By: Denis Abel
Tags: Medical, Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice, Healthcare

How the smallest things you say can have a huge impact.

Picture this — it’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m working my usual weekend shift at my busy pharmacy.

A middle-aged woman comes up to my counter and asks if I could measure her blood pressure. Our store doesn’t have one of those machines where someone can just sit down and get a basic reading, so anytime anyone asks us for a blood pressure reading, either the pharmacist or I have to step out and invite our patients into a room designed specifically for this kind of thing — basic checks, vaccinations, counseling, etc.

I get very eager whenever I get to do anything outside of folding labels and chasing those evasive benzonatate capsules, so I kindly asked my guest to make their way to our patient room and informed her that I’d assist her shortly. We just finished covering approaches to hypertension treatment in lecture, so I was ready to begin applying all my knowledge, especially the new AHA guidelines.

I sit her down and start asking her for more information before I proceed with the blood pressure check — what’s going on, why she wants to do it, what her habits and diet are like, etc. She tells me she is 61 and drinks coffee daily. She doesn’t feel chest pain, but she was concerned because her eye was twitching from time to time and she understands that she’s getting older and needs to be more concerned about her health. I nod as I place the cuff on her arm, tighten it, position her arm, and press “start”.

151/106. I advise her that this is dangerous and a cause for concern. “Are you on any medication for blood pressure?” She replies, “no.” As she writes down these numbers, she asks me to measure it again, just to make sure.

149/98. I tell her that she must see her primary care physician and determine a plan, as well as adjust her diet and try to exercise (or even start walking, anything really). She responds saying she has an appointment Monday morning. Before she leaves, she tells me that she thought she’d have to go to her doctor if it’s extreme, “like 200”. My eyes widen as I inform her that “like 200” is a risk for stroke and that I would not be able to let her leave the pharmacy without calling her an ambulance, per company policy.

Sunday comes. I’m back for another 8-hour shift, when she arrives again, asking to get blood pressure checked. I see she is wearing this thick gray sweater and I tell her “look, even if I measure it now, the numbers will be very inaccurate”. I don’t know what it is with some people, but she wanted to have numbers written down today regardless and I can’t turn down a customer/patient’s request, so I follow through and measure it again.

120/87. She smiles and jokingly tells me “hey look, I’m doing better!” I reply that high blood pressure is a long-term game, to which she says that she didn’t drink coffee today, didn’t have any salt, and even exercised for an hour. I finish with “Good! Keep it up and see your doctor tomorrow, please.”

It’s Monday afternoon and guess who pulls up to my drive-thru?

“I’m here to pick up my blood pressure medication.”

Pretty cool, right? I look up her profile in the system and see that her doctor prescribed her hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg earlier in the day. I’m thinking great — a diuretic! She left a happy patient.

Patient education and health promotion is something that got me into pharmacy in the first place, but experiencing it first-hand has been nothing short of mind-blowing. I emailed my professors about it later, thinking that, even though it may be trivial to them as they’ve spent their lives doing way more for our patients than simple blood pressure checks, they would still find my story inspiring. I did get a warm-hearted reply from them.

I want all my peers to share a similar feeling in their line of work. Not everything we do may feel like a significant contribution, but every patient matters. Create every opportunity to alleviate any concern our friends and neighbors have.