Category:

In states where pharmacists were allowed to sell the potentially lifesaving opioid antidote naloxone without a prescription, fewer people died from opioid overdoses...The passage of laws that let pharmacists sell naloxone directly to patients was associated with a nearly 30 percent drop in the number of opioid overdose deaths compared to states without pharmacist dispensing, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine...When the researchers examined the laws involving naloxone prescriptions, they found that few states had any form of legislation before 2010. By 2016, 47 states had passed some sort of law regarding the life-saving medication, but only nine had laws giving authority to pharmacists to sell naloxone directly to patients...READ MORE

Unlike several other markets, the U.S. consumer healthcare system generally does not allow for the “third leg” of health care: pharmacists prescribing prescription medicines...A U.K. pharmacy can be qualified as one of three general types in terms of the services it provides. The baseline or essential services... enhanced pharmacy services...The highest level...is called advanced...The more advanced level is the independent prescriber who is responsible for the assessment of patients with undiagnosed or diagnosed conditions, who makes decisions about the clinical management required, and who ultimately draws up a treatment plan...The United States is dipping its toe in the waters of pharmacy prescribing in such rural states as Idaho, and even California and Washington, but it is not a national structure. Filling gaps in care through pharmacist prescribing would strengthen community pharmacy’s value proposition within the healthcare system...READ MORE