Dennis Miller, RPh

Dennis Miller, RPh, is a community pharmacist in Delray Beach, Fla. He welcomes feedback at dmiller1952@aol.com. Please send a copy of your comments to drugtopics@advanstar.com.

The author has mixed feelings about whether pharmacists should apologize to patients after they make a drug error.

Pharmacy schools' emphasis on chemistry is unjustified, according to this community pharmacist.

Every pharmacist has his own horror stories that are seared into his brain. Here are some that stand out in my mind.

It used to be that if pharmacists dispensed the right drug and right dose and gave the right directions to the right customer, we were free of liability. Thanks to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA), however, this is no longer the case. As a result of the OBRA counseling provisions, our profession has succeeded in tremendously increasing the risk of liability for frontline pharmacists. We now have to contend with aggressive lawyers who charge us with these three words: failure to warn.

Since the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) is currently reviewing revised guidelines for the Pharm.D. degree, now is a good time to take a look at whether the switch to the Pharm.D. as the entry-level degree has been a boon or bane for the profession.

Supposedly technicians are not allowed to screen for drug therapy problems, but isn't that exactly what they're doing when they routinely zip past a blizzard of DUR alerts?

The author believes that state boards of pharmacy should take steps to address pharmacists' heavy workload in the interest of patient safety

Pharmacists can play a major role in preventing patients from getting sick

The author grouses about the lack of time for pharmacists to counsel patients