I've enjoyed the commentary on this subject as I am a pharmacist
although I do not currently practice in a traditional pharmacy setting.
I see several issues within this discussion including the value of the
service provided, the quality of the service, and the use of marketing
to promote professional services.  

 

One of the fundamental professional obligations of a pharmacist is to
"go over your medicines and explain what you don't understand."  The
process of a "brown bag" medication reviews (or white bag, in this
example) is to provide a system for a more meaningful and purposeful
exchange.  This is not a new service and has been promoted and provided
to the public for several decades, at least prior to my training in the
early eighties. One organizational advocate for this process is the
National Council on Patient Education and Information.
(www.talkaboutrx.org)  As "brown bags" have been studied and shown to
prevent drug-related problems, I would suggest the service itself has
value. Many of you are familiar with Archie Willard and the New Readers
of Iowa.  As part of their meetings, pharmacists provide "brown bag"
reviews for the group.  

 

The next issue I see within the discussion is whether the service could
be improved.  Like other health care professionals, health literacy
principles are being integrated into the teaching goals at colleges and
schools of pharmacy and taught through continuing education
opportunities. As a former employee of a state pharmacy association,
health literacy was a primary educational objective of the association -
educating both the public and the profession.  In addition, the
association convened a multidisciplinary conference to educate and
activate others about health literacy.  Like other professions, the
pharmacy profession is seeking to improve their health literacy skills
as the evidence in this field continues to grow. 

 

The third issue is the appropriate placement and use of marketing in the
world of health care.  Or even more globally, the issue of profitability
in health care.  This issue is not exclusive to pharmacy.  Overall, I
often find the mixing of marketing principles with health care to be
distasteful.  But I love the $20 gift card I received in the mail from
Office Depot.  The question is should a healthcare organization be
"above that"?  My heart and gut tell me "yes."  However, I could also
argue that if a $10 gift card gets someone to review their medications
with a pharmacist and problems are prevented, is that all bad?  Perhaps
a person determines from this experience that they really like this
pharmacist and want to get all their medicines there, so now there
really is a chance at a complete medication record and an ongoing
professional relationship.   

 

As I'm writing this, other issues are being discussed on the listserv
related to pharmacy practice in general.  Issues of privacy, pharmacist
time, pharmacy layout, etc. can be very real.  Several of the issues
discussed are related to regulatory issues which are most often
state-based. When we developed a health literacy public education tool
kit, we held focus groups of consumers and pharmacists.  Our initial
global message was "It Matters...Your Pharmacist Can Help."  The
consumer group overwhelming knew that the pharmacist could help but
perceived the pharmacist as too busy to do so.  We end up changing the
tagline to "Your Pharmacist Wants to Help" rather than can help.  The
consumers truly believed that the pharmacists would reject the entire
plan.  In fact, one of them said "I'd like to be the mouse in the corner
as you tell pharmacists they should do this."  On the flipside, during
the pharmacist focus group, there was never any hesitation or concern
about the interventions promoted in the toolkit.  They were relatively
brief like showing how to measure and administer a child's antibiotic.
The pharmacists acknowledged they were busy but "never too busy for
this."  So there appears to be a disconnect on what consumers feel they
can request from their pharmacist and what the pharmacist is willing to
provide.  Back to the original discussion, medication reviews (done
right in needy populations) are quite time consuming (30-60 minutes)so
pharmacists could be hesitant without additional support for this work.
The reality is this company would be better off financially giving
someone a $50 gift card to just walk in the location than an hour's
worth of pharmacist time.  

 

I think what we are all struggling with is how health care is
increasingly getting wrapped up into a retail setting or how services
may be swayed by more profitable endeavors than simply health.  With the
advent of "minute clinics", now one can go to the doctor, go to
pharmacy, and get their cigarettes, in one swoop.  It would appear this
is what consumers want because if they weren't putting their money
there, it wouldn't happen. Likewise, my dermatologist sells skin care
lines, make-up, etc., and you can't get an appointment with a dentist
for routine oral health because he is performing cosmetic dentistry.
There are simply no easy answers for this trend.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to input on this topic.        

 

Cheryl Clarke

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Julie McKinney
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:59 AM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 1663] Wednesday Question: Health Literacy
andMarketing

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I apologize that I've neglected the Wednesday Question lately! But Im
back on board (a day late) and here we go...

 

I got a nice white paper bag in the mail from Rite Aid pharmacy. It says
to put your medicines in the bag, bring it in to Rite Aid, and a
pharmacist will go over your medicines and explain what you don't
understand. And you get a $10 gift certicicate if you do this. So we
have a pharmacy using a health literacy strategy (and a good one, I
think) to market their services. I think this is really interesting, and
rather promising that good HL practices can be seen as a hook to get
people interested.

 

What do you all think of this concept of using HL for marketing of
services? I see potential for improvement of services overall, but I'm
sure there are many issues to look at.

 

I'd love to hear people's thoughts and other examples of this
phenomenon!

 

All the best,

Julie

 

Julie McKinney

Discussion List Moderator

World Education/NCSALL

jmckinney at worlded.org

 

----------------------------------------------------

National Institute for Literacy

Health and Literacy mailing list

HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov

To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy

Email delivered to clarkec at wellmark.com



CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please do not distribute it.  Please notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown and delete or destroy the original message and any attachments.  Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080118/79c5fde1/attachment.html