Česky
3.10.2010
The Hořovice Hospital Pharmacy has introduced a new service for its patients: it has started to monitor their health status and provide individual counselling. The pharmacists thus approached the standard that is commonly used in the West. There, the pharmacist tends to be a much greater source of information for the patient than the attending physician. For the patients of the Hořovice Hospital pharmacy, this has another benefit. They can get discounts on selected goods for taking care of their health.
"We were inspired by our European colleagues. It is quite common for the pharmacist to explain to patients the effects of the prescribed medicine on a given disease, to point out important information in connection with the use of the medicine and especially the side effects. They can also supplement the information from the doctor," says Mgr. Tomáš Veverka, head of the pharmacy at the Hořovice Hospital. "In order to be able to provide comprehensive advice to patients, with their consent, we can now track their medication history and better advise them. The holder of the new drug card will also receive interesting discounts from our offer," explains the pharmacist the principle of the drug card and adds: "I am very pleased that the number of patients who use our services and come to our pharmacy is increasing. The client drug cards will be another step towards improving the service to patients who visit our pharmacy."
The new owner of the drug card is also MUDr. Jana Paduchová, who is currently on maternity leave with her son. "I understand well the meaning of the whole novelty and I cheer for such efforts to improve patient comfort," says Dr. Paduchová about the project. "Plus, I get a discount at my pharmacy, which I go to regularly. There's nothing to worry about," Paduchová adds succinctly.
The new drug card is offered by the pharmacy of Hořovice Hospital to every patient. Anyone can also apply for it. The drug card is a plastic card with a barcode under which the patient's record is kept in the pharmacy system, with the entire history of the medicines that the patient has picked up at the pharmacy. The system can also work with the pharmacist's notes about the patient's health status, based on which the pharmacist can make recommendations and help the patient to better navigate their health problems.
Sometimes the simultaneous administration of two or more drugs can lead to a change in the effect of one of them. In extreme cases, this can even be dangerous for the patient. The greatest benefit of the drug card lies precisely in the possibility of detecting so-called drug interactions, which are the names given to such conditions.
