President Obama's Response to my suggestions regarding healthcare overhaul

My letter to President Obama regarding Health Care Reform

To,

President Barack Obama

Sub: - A Pharmacist willing to be a part of the Healthcare Reform task force.

Dear Mr. President

I am a licensed Pharmacist in the states of California (License # 57694) and Kansas (License # 1-13586). Since the past 6 years I have been serving the community by working as a community retail pharmacist.

I am writing this letter because as a Health care Professional I passionately want to make an important contribution to your administration’s Health care Overhaul Plan by working diligently towards driving down the cost of health care in United States. At this moment the reform plan is in its embryonic phase, but here is how I wish to contribute to this revolutionary program.

Best Practice Standards and Metrics

If given a chance I would like to be actively involved in the commission (made up of health care professionals) that sets “best practice standards” and thereby contribute to creating some game changers in this broken health care system. After the implementation begins, I wish to render my knowledge and expertise in evaluating the effectiveness of the plan and developing various metrics and yardsticks that could gauge the success of the plan.

Creating an Incentive for Primary Care and Prevention

During all Health care Reform Discussions making primary care accessible and affordable is at the forefront. When it comes to prevention and primary care everyone always talk about Doctors and Nurses and Physician Assistants. But one of the most readily accessible and knowledgeable groups of health care professionals – “Pharmacist” is left out of the discussion. In fact if properly utilized, trained and “given an incentive”, Pharmacists can play a key role in providing primary care and prevention. This could greatly reduce the number of people going to ER for treating relatively benign medical conditions like upper respiratory tract infections, conjunctivitis, & ear infections.

Creating a Uniquely American Healthcare System

The reason why the term “medical tourism” is now in the lexicon is because countries like India are able to provide good quality health care at an economical price. I have prior experience working in the Pharmaceutical and Health care Industry in India since my family ties go back to India. This enables me to compare the health care system in both countries and suggest some sweeping changes that could help drive down the cost of health care significantly. This could bring the best of both worlds and create a “Uniquely American” health care system, which other countries of the world would want to emulate and be envious of.

I also wish use my knowledge and experience as a Pharmacist by working with the IT professionals in order to make the Health Record Digitization process as seamless as possible.

Please give me a chance to serve the country and make a difference

I currently do have a financially rewarding career as a Pharmacist with CVS pharmacy in San Diego California. However if your administration gives me a chance I am willing to leave the beautiful San Diego weather and move to Washington, DC in order to make a difference . We are at a very critical juncture in this health care journey and I strongly do believe that something needs to be done “now” and that whatever is done will make us emerge as a stronger, better and a more resilient country.

Very truly yours

Neelraj Patel

Consulting Pharmacist Online - Free

 Your Free Online Consulting Pharmacist - Webpharmacist

 Do you have questions about dosage, side effects and interactions of  prescription or OTC drugs?Dont hesitate to ask your webpharmacist and receive personalized attention from a healthcare professional 

Welcome to webpharamcist - a blog that aims to revolutionize the way drug consulting would be done in future.

About myself
My name is Neelraj and I am a Professionally Licensed Registered Pharmacist. I currently hold active Pharmacist Licenses for the States of California and Kansas.

What is webpharmacist?
As a Health Care Professional I have created the webpharmacist blog primarily because I wish to make my drug consulting services available to a vast audience. Webpharmacist makes me accessible to patients in the entire US and across the globe rather than being confined to providing consulting services in the local community of San Diego where I am currently practicing as a Pharmacist.

Why choose webpharmacist?
Of course there is a plethora of generalized drug information available over the Internet which one could dig through if he/she has the time to do that. Not only is it a very cumbersome process for some one who is not a healthcare professional but also it can never provide individualized information, which is tailor-made for one's particular medical needs. Through webpharmacist I wish to revolutionize drug consulting by giving patients more accurate and dependable drug related information, which is customized for their individual medical needs.

The often overwhelmed and confused patient
Regular use of multiple prescription drugs has been a predominant factor behind improving the quality of life and longevity of individuals suffering from various disease states. Consequently patients are often overwhelmed with numerous questions intriguing their mind about the effectiveness, frequency and time of dosing, interaction with other drugs, nasty adverse effects etc etc. The field of pharmacy is so dynamic and ever evolving that it could be challenging for patients taking prescription drugs to figure out for themselves the countless questions they have pertinent to their prescriptions

The Growing Role of Prescription Drugs in the well being of humanity
Ground breaking research in Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences have improved the quality of life and increased life expectancy of humanity in ways that were beyond one’s perception just a few years ago. At the core of all these advancements are Prescription Drugs. Prescription drugs are a quintessentially important component behind the well-being and recovery of individuals afflicted by disease states that were once considered unmanageable.

Conditions like Hypertension, Diabetes, Osteoporosis, Bipolar Disorders, Heart Disease (just to name a few from the vast abyss) no longer impose limits on the quality of life enjoyed by the afflicted individuals.

Webpharmacist v/s The Traditional Neighborhood Pharmacist

Majority of Physicians have very limited time to spare with the patients for discussing their medical conditions and lab results, let alone discussing their Prescription Drug Regimens in detail. After leaving the doctor’s office numerous questions arise in the mind of patients about the multitude of prescription drugs they are supposed to take.

Hence you approach the most easily accessible healthcare professional in the society- the “traditional Retail Pharmacist” at your neighborhood chain drug store and ask him for a consultation. Retail Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who “should be” thoroughly knowledgeable about all the aspects of prescription drugs. Note that I am using the phrase “should be” because most pharmacists working in your neighborhood pharmacies are: -
a) Busy counting pills and slapping labels on vials
b) Overworked and understaffed because all that the chain drug stores care about is their bottom line (net profit) AND
c) Simply don’t have the time and resources to keep abreast of the latest drug related issues.

Having been there and done that I know first hand that they are so overworked that most of them haven't updated their knowledge in years. Most of them haven’t opened their textbooks since they were in the last year of Pharmacy School. With due respect to all the retail pharmacists out there the fact of the matter is that the job itself is so physically demanding that it is simply not possible for most pharmacists to read and enhance their knowledge.

The only time they read medical and pharmaceutical literature is when they have to complete Continuing Education (C.E) courses for the purpose of renewing their licenses. And in most states the renewal needs to be done biannually and hence it only happens once every 2 years. Additionally the CE courses are online tests that are kind of open book with multiple-choice questions and they don’t require any thorough reading. Many pharmacists don’t even take the pains to do this once every 2 years. They simply borrow answer sheets of tests taken by their acquaintances and just cheat on the online test.

Most retail pharmacists fill around 300 prescriptions per day and are terribly understaffed. In that kind of busy pace, they hardly have enough time to speak with you in detail about your prescription drugs and resolve your doubts and queries. At best they would tell you whether your medicine needs to taken with or without food, what time of the day you should take it and whether drinking alcohol is contraindicated with the drug: - Sound familiar??

Absence of Knowledge based wage structure for Retail Pharmaicsts: -
The truth is that the wage structure of Retail Pharmacists is set up in such a way that each and every Pharmacist in a particular region is paid the same fixed dollar amount per hour irrespective of his/her knowledge. A knowledge based compensation system for retail pharmacists simply doesn’t exist in any state of USA. Hence there isn’t any motivation for most retail pharmacists to update their knowledge. Pharmacists do get performance-based bonuses, but that performance is not measured in terms of their knowledge or skills. The performance is measured in terms of
a) The “sheer Volume of Prescriptions that they fill per week” AND
b) The amount of net profit that they generate for the drug store for which they are working.

They might be the dumbest of all the Pharmacists, but if they generate a great Prescription volume they receive a big bonus check.

How is webpharmacist different?
A perfectly appropriate question that you might have in you mind is that “how am I going to be any different than most of the retail pharmacists?” First of all the initiative that I have taken to create this blog sets me apart from the rest of the herd. I try to read in any spare time that I get. I work 4 days a week and on the 3 days that I am off I do intense reading trying to keep abreast of whatever new is happening in the pharmacy field. I am in no way trying to say or boast that I know all the details about all the drugs. This is just impossible. I probably don’t know even 50% of what is out there. But I do know how to get information and in a quick and efficient manner because my basics are very thorough.

Honesty, authenticity and integrity are the principles that I adhere to very strongly. Hence let me be quick to point out that Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who are knowledgeable about topics like drug absorption, drug metabolism, drug excretion, drug dosing etc. But pharmacists are “not trained in the diagnosis and prognosis” of various disease states and conditions based on the symptoms of patients. That is the job of your physician.

Hence your questions shall be answered satisfactorily if they are pertinent to DRUGS that you are taking. But a symptom-based diagnosis is not the forte of a pharmacist. Don’t get me wrong on this- I am not trying to convey that we don’t have any knowledge on any medical conditions. Of course we have a basic understanding of most medical conditions and disease states. It’s just that we are not experts to make a diagnosis based on outward symptoms.

Webpharmacist lets you ask your web-based pharmacist any question about a prescription or over the counter medicine that you are taking at present or wish to take in the future. Until I get a steady flow of questions directed to my blog, I would try to update this blog by selecting a common medical condition and providing key information related to the drugs used to treat the condition.

Your trust in me is what could make webpharmacist a success in revolutionizing drug consulting.

Watch out for more posts.