The Value of a Pharmacist to a Primary Care Team

Jaron Stout, PharmD, owner, consulting pharmacist, Collaborative Pharmacy Consultants, discusses how pharmacists can work alongside physicians and other members of a primary care team, and help to relieve 'prescribing cascades.' This video was filmed at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists' 2019 Forum in Washington, DC.

Jaron Stout, PharmD: There’s what people call a ‘prescribing cascade,’ where you start someone on a medication to fix a problem and, in the true Western medicine way, that does fix the problem, but 99% of the time, we’re trading in that problem for a new one. So, does this new problem outweigh the old problem? It’s the good question. Sometimes that new problem creates a need for another medication, which then has more side effects, which need more medications. And so, having a pharmacist on the team to narrow down not only the side effects and select the right medication for the right patient, but also making sure that we deprescribe unneeded medications, so that the prescribing cascade can be relieved, as well.