Why Choose an Independent Pharmacy Consulting Firm?
Your residents have the freedom to choose their pharmcay provider. As a facility, you also have the option of choosing an independent pharmacy consultant that is truly separate from the dispensing pharmacy. In recent years, there has been a shift in the long-term care pharmacy industry. Now that facilities are responsible for a greater percentage of medication cost, large-scale pharmacy distributors have been able to provide medications at a lower cost, and usually offer “discounted” consulting services, which is made up for in the dispensing fees they receive. In an editorial on the American Medical Directors Association web site, titled “Biomedical Ethics & Pharmacy Issues in Long-Term Care Facilities”, Jonathan Evans, MD, CMD, provides support for independent consultants: Some of the issues that he describes include: • Many consulting pharmacists are now employees of corporate pharmacy providers whose profits are derived from the sale of medications in general, and whose profit marg
