A Pound of Cure

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Benjamin Franklin

“If everything is God’s will, then so is the invention of the vaccine,

 just like the seatbelt.”  Els Borst

What better way is there to plumb the depths of a profession’s soul, than by examining the quality of mercy and of comfort that it freely offers to the healthcare commonwealth?  The charitable works, the good deeds.

Immunizing pharmacists are uniquely positioned to perform as agents of public good works, and to practice as ambassadors of goodwill who define the Pharmacy profession’s charitable niche in the eyes of the public that it serves.

Protecting the unaware elderly against the ravages of influenza and related pneumonias is just one example of the good that could be done.  The simple math of the situation is as follows:

• Influenza and related pneumonias play a role in six to eight percent of all deaths in seniors aged sixty five years and older.
• Antibiotic resistance makes the successful treatment of fulminant pneumonias in elderly patients very difficult.
• Ten percent of all hospital admissions of seniors with pneumonia end in death.
• Seventeen percent of all hospital admissions of seniors with pneumonia result in costly non-voluntary readmission to the hospital within thirty days.  Medicare is highly reluctant to pay for these readmitted patients.
• Seniors aged sixty five years and older only immunize against influenza and pneumonia at an annual herd rate of eighteen percent.  Vaccines for this group are free from Medicare.

 Applying these metrics, for personal example, to the twenty three thousand Medicare eligible residents of rural Monroe County, Michigan pastes a more human face on the problem:

• Deaths from influenza and related pneumonias in the lifetime of this group will range between thirteen hundred and eighteen hundred souls.
• Only forty one hundred individuals in the group will annually immunize against influenza and related pneumonias; leaving nearly nineteen thousand seniors unprotected by vaccination each year.
• One out of every ten seniors who seek treatment for pneumonia at the only hospital in the county will die from the illness.
• Nearly two out of ten seniors who seek treatment for pneumonia at the hospital will be readmitted for pneumonia treatment within thirty days.  Some will be readmitted multiple times.  The hospital will be left holding the bag for their Medicare related care.

 The scope of the problem when these same measurements are applied to the populations of elderly residents in more densely inhabited counties throughout America… can be staggering.

One solution to the problem seems self evident:  immunizing pharmacists need to tend to the elderly patients thriving in their own pharmacy practice gardens, and actively immunize these seniors against influenza and related pneumonias.  As the horrifically low immunization rate amongst seniors improves for this herd of folks… other good things will just fall into place:

• Deaths rates from influenza and related pneumonias in the lifetime of the group will decrease.  Pharmacists will save lives.  PR doesn’t get better than that.
• The numbers of seniors seeking treatment at local hospitals for influenza and related pneumonias will decrease.  Mortality rates from pneumonia and readmission rates from pneumonia at the hospitals will decrease.  The bottom line of the hospitals will benefit as Medicare losses are cut.
• Immunizing pharmacists will get paid by Medicare for every patient that is immunized.  This is one good deed that pays.
• New patients will be added to pharmacy practice rolls.  Look at the numbers in my backwater county as an example:  nearly nineteen thousand seniors in need of up to three immunizations per person.
• The pharmacy profession will earn a much deserved gold star for service in each community served.

 We live in an information age.  Identifying the seniors in a pharmacy practice community is pretty simple.  For just a few hundred bucks a customizable and sortable spreadsheet listing every senior aged sixty five years and older living within fifteen miles of a pharmacy’s doorstep can be purchased.

 

The listing will include:  name, address, telephone number, date of birth, age, financial status, and informative personal demographics.  The information provided is warranteed to be current and accurate, with a money back guarantee.  Free mailing labels are even provided.  An example vendor of just such useful information is:  InfoUSA, infousa.com, 1-800-835-5856.

Elderly patients once having been identified, are only a telephone call, postage stamp, or knock-on-the-door away from being helped.  Pharmacists with imagination, flexibility, personal drive and creativity would have an obvious upper hand in this new brand of pharmacy practice.  A willingness to make house-calls is also a big plus.

As an aside, any of these elderly patients who might soon be welcoming newborn grandchildren into the extended family need to also consider updating immunization against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.  Grandfolks are notorious carriers of pertussis, and can present a real health risk to infants.

An aggressive program that immunizes the elderly in a practice community against influenza and related pneumonias, offers immunizing pharmacists a golden opportunity to provide a life saving public service in a fashion that also makes good business sense.  A joint practice agreement with a local hospital might also present itself, courtesy of the prospective financial benefits extendable to the hospital.

An ounce of prevention that offers benefits in equal portions to:  elderly patients, the community, the local hospital, the immunizing pharmacist, and the pharmacy profession at large… seems like mighty strong measure of medicine indeed.

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