Really -- Pharmacists are going to need to change

As pharmacy students, many years ago, we were told that pharmacy practice needed to move from a profession that focuses on drugs to a patient centered profession. Since then, pharmacy practice in community settings has continued to focus on selling drugs. And pharmacists and their employers have been highly paid for doing so.

Now it is different.

Really.

Here is why.

Economics.

We can't afford to pay pharmacists to do what they are doing. Over the years, pharmacists made a good living by counting and pouring. Now, the profit margins are shrinking for the dispensing of drugs. And the way to increase profits is to either make up the revenues elsewhere in the pharmacy (on greeting cards and motor oil) or reduce dispensing costs. To reduce dispensing costs, pharmacies need to use more technology such as ATM-style dispensing machines, hire more low paid pharmacy technicians and give them greater responsibilities, prepare drugs for dispensing in assembly line type centralized medication filling centers, and/or find some other way to remove the pharmacist from drug preparation.

So, it is clear to me that pharmacists need to change the way they help patients.

The $64,000 question is "change to what?"