Pharmacists on the Front Line: a patient-centric healthcare system.

By

An aging population, coupled with advances in medical treatments, is continuing to put pressure on our healthcare budgets.

Provincial governments are now preparing for bold changes to improve and protect our publicly funded healthcare system. In fact, many opportunities are currently being identified to move the delivery of basic health services through more accessible and less expensive channels.

Community pharmacists are well-positioned to meet some of these demands such as performing flu shots or assessing minor ailments. Pharmacists have been considered the most trusted and most accessible healthcare provider in Canada. A pharmacist’s connection to their community and patients represents a significant opportunity to expand their practices and deliver health services.

Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan on 229 western Canadian community pharmacies recently revealed that the implementation of expanded services is related to favourable patient health outcomes.

Community pharmacists need to move up the value chain and become front line healthcare providers. To remain competitive, pharmacy businesses need to redirect their focus away from dispensing and towards providing clinical services for their patients.

These innovations create a real solution for governments to efficiently and effectively deliver health services with a preventative, patient-centric model that will ultimately lower the overall health expenditure curve.

Providen Pharmacy Logistics is proud to support our community pharmacy customers by providing central fill and MedSync® solutions to assist with the transforming pharmacy practice.