Opinions Please-Doctors should diagnose illness and disease and pharmacists should prescribe the medication...

Question

...after having consulted with one another. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Your average doctor knows rather little about pharmacology. They are knowledgeable about their drugs, but nothing else. Many interns/residents are afraid to prescribe medicines without getting approval from the pharmacist. Doctor's prescribing habits are very much swayed by advertising. They tend to prescribe the new drugs, even though the old ones work just as well.
I have had medical students ask me questions about their pharmacology lectures and I'm just a student.
Doctors' speciality is the diagnosis of a disease, and pharmacists' speciality is the medications. Who does the doctor ask when he/she has a drug question, the pharmacist.

Answer 2

Disagree - This would probably lead to a higher instance of malpractice. Pharmacists do not get the extensive education about diagnosing illnesses like doctors do, though they are able to help patients choose over the counter medications for ailments.

Pharmacists are trained to know about medications and everything that goes along with them, like interactions, indications, dosages, etc. Doctors are trained to recognize symptoms and choose an appropriate course of treatment. At times, doctors will ask the advice of a pharmacist, but not very often. And if a pharmacist questions a dosage or drug interaction with a med the patient is on, they will contact the physician to make sure they prescribed the right thing.

Overall, the best interest of the patient is at heart, and that's why I think it's better that doctors stick to diagnosis and prescription and pharmacists do the filling and counseling.

Answer 3

Actually your pharmacist is correct that the insulin contains 500 units/mL. That is what makes it so concentrated, because normal insulin contains 100 units/mL. So yes, you are receiving 10,000 units per month. Because 500 units/mL x 20 mL is 10,000 units. However, if the doctor wrote for you to receive 40 mL a month, then the pharmacy has to give you the option of getting the full 40 mL. Do you have insurance? If so, the insurance company may be placing a restriction on how much they are willing to pay for, and limiting you to one 20 mL bottle since that is enough to cover more than a month. Ask your pharmacy is this is the case. If so, they have to give you the option to pay cash for the entire amount (which you do not want to do, trust me). If not, then you need to have your doctor contact the pharmacy, or have the pharmacy contact the doctor. Clearly there has been some misunderstanding on someone's part, and it needs to be resolved. This can only be done by the doctor and the pharmacist having a chat directly with each other, not through you. And don't assume that your pharmacist is an idiot and that your doctor is correct just because he is a doctor. Pharmacists know much more about medications than doctors do.

Answer 4

Disagree. Doctors perform a thorough examination including medical history and allergies and reactions to other drugs and choose medications that are most likely to help without causing unnecessary risk of harm. They often specialize and know a great deal about the drugs related to their field of expertise. Pharmacists are given prescriptions to be filled with very little info about the extensive medical findings. Pharmacists can serve as a backup to avoid obvious errors and may have a patient file regarding other conflicting medications being taken (but not mentioned to the doctor). Together the doctor and pharmacist form a team for the patients well being. But each has a separate and important role to play.

Answer 5

Disagree. This would make so much paperwork and lead to so many people being given the wrong medicines with no one taking the blame for a wrong diagnosis or wrong meds prescribed. Let's leave the prescriptions to the doctors. The pharmacists are the watch dogs on the doctors and it should remain that way.

Pharmacists are not medical doctors.

Answer 6

Disagree, Doctors diagnose and know what medicine works best for the particular illness and what your body can handle as far as dose.

The pharmisist studies the drugs and there intended uses and does not know or have the history or physical status of the patient to be able to decide on which meds will work for someone and how much to give them.

Very differnet schooling for both although both take about 8 years of college but the pharmiscist is not qualified to make a decision on what to give someone.

Answer 7

A PharmD may know as much as a physician about what drugs treat what illnesses, though most pharmacists don't, but he doesn't know the important part. The physician isn't treating the disease, he's treating the patient. If medicine were as simplisitic as most people think, it would work, but no better than the current system. But medicine is amazingly complex and best left to those who know it well.

Answer 8

Disagree-work would never get done. They would average 1-2 patients/hour and spend the rest of the time on the phone. That is just crazy. That is why Doctors are trained on the medication to heal patients. They order it and the techs fill the rx.

Answer 9

in some settings this happens already. Whether it is my opinion or not.