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OUR NEWSSTANDS Medical locations: • Children’s Hospital of Georgia, Harper Street, Main Lobby • Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Ctr, 15th St., Main Entrance • Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Uptown Div., Wrightsboro Rd., main lobby • Doctors Hospital, 3651 Wheeler Rd, ER Lobby Entrance • Eisenhower Hospital, Main Lobby, Fort Gordon • George C. Wilson Drive (by medical center Waffle House and mail boxes) • Augusta U. Hospital, 1120 15th Street, South & West Entrances • Augusta U. Medical Office Building, Harper Street, Main Entrance • Augusta U. Medical Office Building, Harper Street, Parking Deck entrance • Augusta U. Hospital, Emergency Room, Harper Street, Main Entrance • Augusta U., Laney-Walker Boulevard transit stop, Augusta • Select Specialty Hospital, Walton Way, Main entrance lobby • Trinity Hospital, Wrightsboro Road, main lobby by elevators • Trinity Hospital Home Health, Daniel Village, main lobby • University Health Federal Credit Union/ University Hospital Human Resources, 1402 Walton Way, Main Lobby • University Hospital, 1350 Walton Way, Emergency Room lobby area • University Hospital, 1350 Walton Way, Outside Brown & Radiology/Day Surgery • University Hospital - Columbia County, 465 N. Belair Road, Main Lobby • University Hospital Prompt Care, 3121 Peach Orchard Road, Augusta
Around town: • Barney’s Pharmacy, 2604 Peach Orchard Rd. • Birth Control Source, 1944 Walton Way • GRU Summerville Student Bookstore • Blue Sky Kitchen, 990 Broad Street • Columbia County Library, main branch lobby, Ronald Reagan Drive, Evans • Enterprise Mill (North Tower), 1450 Greene Street, Augusta • Daniel Village Barber Shop, Wrightsboro Road at Ohio Ave. • Hartley’s Uniforms, 1010 Druid Park Ave, Augusta • International Uniforms, 1216 Broad Street, Augusta • Marshall Family Y, Belair Rd, Evans • Mellow Mushroom, 12th and Broad Streets, Augusta • Parks Pharmacy, Georgia Avenue, North Augusta • Southside Family Y, Tobacco Road, Augusta • Surrey Center, Surrey Center Pharmacy, Highland Avenue, Augusta • Top-Notch Car Wash, 512 N. Belair Road, Evans • Wild Wing Cafe, 3035 Washington Road, Augusta
Plus... 800+ doctors offices throughout the area for staff and waiting rooms, as well as many nurses stations and waiting rooms of area hospitals.
MARCH 18, 2016
AUGUSTA MEDiCAL EXAMINER
Very little if anything about healthcare is inexpensive, and that includes medicine. Tiny pills can command large prices. Over-the-counter medications may be less expensive, but are they also less effective? Find the answers to lots of your drug store questions in this column written by Augusta pharmacists Chris and Lee Davidson exclusively for the Medical Examiner.
COMBINATION MEDICINES: THEIR PROS & CONS One recent trend in pharmacy is to take the latest drug for a given condition and turn it into a combination drug. This new drug may contain two or three ingredients that work together to treat the given condition. Blood pressure medicine manufacturers have been doing this for a long time. It started with combining a blood pressure medicine and a diuretic for those patients that needed both. More recently, blood sugar medicine manufacturers have followed suit, using the newest guidelines for combination therapy to determine how to blend ingredients. The newest example of this trend is in the Alzheimer medicine market. Aricept would be prescribed for initial therapy and many times a doctor would add Namenda for additional benefit. Now there is a new drug called Namzaric that combines both medications into one pill. Is the combination drug plan a good plan for you? Let’s look at both sides of the story. Let’s start with the known advantages of combination drugs. The primary advantage is reducing the number of pills you must take per day. This allows a patient to be more compliant by reducing the complexity of their drug regimen. Let’s face it, it’s easier to remember to take one pill rather than going thru a half dozen bottles to pick out several medicines all for your high blood pressure. Some of the new three-in-one medicines allow you to take two blood pressure medicines and your diuretic all in one pill. Manufacturers are also now trying to make medicines that you only have to take once or
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maybe twice a day instead of multiple times. This also simplifies the taking of your daily medicines. Sometimes you cannot get around having to take a medicine multiple times a day, but as manufacturers continue to do research and improve on current medications the number of four-time-a-day medicines is being reduced. All the news seems great. Is there a downside? There is, but only if an unlikely string of events occurs — and it sometimes does. Let’s say you’re diagnosed with a certain condition and your doctor prescribes a combination drug for you. Then let’s say that you have an allergic reaction to that drug. In such a situation it becomes very difficult for doctors to pinpoint exactly which ingredient is the culprit behind your allergic reaction. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible, and the result is that for your safety, your doctor and pharmacy show that you’re allergic to every one of the many ingredients in the combined formulation. The way to prevent such a possibility is for your doctor to start you out with a single medicine and then add others if additional effect is needed. This allows the doctor to get you on the correct regimen, then switch to a combination pill to simplify your medication regimen if desired. This is a good way to go, but with the added downside that combination drugs are often produced only as the “brand name” drug whereas the individual components making it up may be available in generic versions. When that happens, going from generic versions to a single brand name drug, you may see a higher copay or have a harder time getting insurance coverage due to a higher wholesale cost for the insurance company. Most manufacturers have copay assistance cards to help offset this, but Medicare law forbids the use of copay assistance coupons for Medicare copays. So if a combination drug is useful for you, then by all means try to simplify your medicines where you can. We talked about how combination drugs can simplify your medicines and improve compliance. What are some other ways to improve a patient’s compliance with their prescribed medicine regimen? We will look at a couple of the options for patients and their caregivers coming up soon. In the meantime, talk to your pharmacy about whether a combination drug may help you, and any other options that your pharmacy offers. + Written for the Medical Examiner by Augusta pharmacists Chris and Lee Davidson Questions, comments and article suggestions can be sent by email to cjdlpdrph@bellsouth.net
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437 Georgia Avenue, North Augusta, SC
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