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Good: Convenience, convenience, convenience. More locations means more places to get treatment and possibly less waiting times. Bad: Cost. Will less competition in the market mean higher prices?

Having pharmacists on primary care teams monitoring the treatment of blood pressure in patients with Type 2 diabetes have a significant impact on improved outcomes, according to a study published in the May/June issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

"Further consolidation in the retail setting means pharmacy services are increasingly available only from a fewer number of larger entities. The CVS-Target deal reinforces the need and strengthens the case for allowing patients to use 'any willing pharmacy' that accepts a drug plan's terms and conditions, such as reimbursement. "Patients in underserved rural and inner-city areas rely on access to independent community pharmacies for prescription medication and counseling. For these and some other patients national pharmacy chains are not a practical option.

By performing medication reconciliation across the care continuum, pharmacists play an essential role in preventing medication errors during transitions of care. Pharmacy professors from the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University recently detailed the most common causes of medication errors during care transitions and described the pharmacists’ role in mitigating them.

Remember when participating in a community brown bag consult was mandatory in pharmacy school? Students would arrived prepared with drug references in hand, ready to go through all of the medications that patients brought with them. Focusing more on the patient than the drugs can potentially make a bigger impact on outcomes and quality of life.