Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Let them eat drugs!
I understand that retail stores are under pressure to entice customers amid a faltering economy. But I'm not sure Wegman's and Giant are sending a great public health message by offering free generic antibiotics to patients for the next few months (source: Baltimore Sun). Might this encourage doctors to prescribe them more freely, or patients to pressure doctors for prescriptions, at a time when they are already overused?
Maybe the grocery store chains should have picked a different drug. Statins, perhaps?
Labels: antibiotics, statins
posted by Jessica Berthold at
11:49 AM
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6 Comments:
Outstanding point I did not think of. Local Depts of Health absolutely need to follow trends and utilization to see the effects of these offers. You are right, the temptation to ask/prescribe for rx could bump use by ??? 5-10%.
Thanks. That's a good idea about the Depts of Health...You can bet the grocery stores will be tracking the rise in filled prescriptions, right down to the pill!
I noted this in our local (Syracuse, NY) paper too. Physicians are having enough trouble talking patients out of using antibiotics inappropriately for colds and now this adds to the problem!
Wegmans should restrict their marketing to bring in customers to food products without encouraging an already abused area of patient directed medical mismanagement. The vast majority of patients with colds still think an antibiotic will help resolve their cold symptoms sooner. Getting antibiotics for nothing facilitates this. When will government, businesses, and insurers understand that patients need CME to contain health care costs?
The antibiotic may be free but the path to getting them isn't. The costs of treating C. Diff. and MRSA is higher yet. I agree with the other bloggers that if they want to give away something free, how about free generics that patients don't take regularly due to costs, like antihypertensives, lipid lowering agents and the like?
If physicians are competent and practice good medicine they know most URI infections are viral and do not require antibiotics. The fact that grocery stores are using marketing ploys to get patients into their stores should have no effect whatsoever on the precsribing habits of doctors. The huge problem of resistant bacteria that has resulted from their indiscriminate use is not the fault of the place that dispenses them.
As a RPh, I am concerned about people pharmacy-shopping, and resulting drug interactions not being caught. If a person on warfarin gets a script for, say Bactrim ds, filled at another pharmacy for free, the interaction is not going to be flagged by the pharmacy since the warfarin wasn't filled there. The increased INR may necessitate an ER visit, increasing the cost of healthcare.
MS RPh, CGP
Excellent point, matransplant. One would hope the pharmacist would ask about other drugs the person is taking, but I'm sure that doesn't always happen.
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