ON THE COVER | MODERNIZED REFERENCE DRUG PROGRAM
Value of therapeutic substitutions Therapeutic substitutions allow a pharmacist to substitute the prescribed drug with a different drug that is designed to have a similar therapeutic effect, as long as that drug is from within the same therapeutic class. The College of Pharmacists of BC recently changed its “Professional Practice Policy 58 - Medication Management (Adapting a Prescription)” to include those categories under the Ministry of Health’s Reference Drug Program.
prescription and having a conversation with the patient. “The last thing you want to do is fill a prescription twice,” Dar Santos says. Pharmacists’ role in RDP Pharmacists will be the health-care professional dealing with the majority of questions from patients and will be largely responsible for educating patients about the modernized program. In cases where a prescription is not written for a reference drug, the pharmacist may need to adapt that prescription in order to dispense a fully PharmaCare-covered drug, communicating that with the patient and their prescriber. “The relationship between the pharmacist and the patient is No. 1, because if the patient trusts the pharmacist you’re more than 90 per cent of the way there,” Millman says. To arm pharmacists with the information on changes to the RDP so they can make better decisions and have better conversations with patients, the BCPhA has created a free online training program for any pharmacist in the province. As well, the Ministry has developed a Modernized RDP guide and decision support tools, which have been mailed to all pharmacies across the province. They are also available for download on PharmaCare’s website.
Pharmacist Michael Millman (centre) and his team at Delta Prescription Clinic who will be helping to implement the Modernized RDP (left to right) Amandeep Dhaliwal (pharmacy assistant), Minh Tran (pharmacist), Michael Tellis (pharmacist), Kathy Krauss (pharmacy assistant), Jasraaj Gill (pharmacy technician), Sabrina Van Daele (pharmacy assistant), Michelle Steuart (pharmacist), Carly Millman (pharmacy assistant) and Chariy Juan (pharmacy assistant). Missing: Katie Luehmann (pharmacy assistant), Joana Espiritu (pharmacy assistant) and Nav Randhawa (pharmacist).
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THE TABLET
Jul/Aug 2016
bcpharmacy.ca
“It’s going to take a little bit of effort to explain [the patient’s] options and you don’t want them to feel like, ‘If you do not change you do not get your drug’,” Millman says. “It wouldn’t be us out of the blue changing their medications, they would understand the choices, the difference between what we’re doing and the motivating factor would be they would pay less for their prescription.” For more information on the Modernized RDP, visit bcpharmacy.ca/modernized-rdp.