AMDA Promotes Appropriate, Ethical Prescribing Practices
AMDA has taken a stand against inappropriate prescribing practices
for patients in the nation's long-term care facilities. At its
September meeting, AMDA's Board of Directors approved a new position
statement, "Pharmacy Physician Relations and Appropriate Prescribing for Long-Term Care Patients."
Specifically, AMDA's position takes aim at the practice of using
patient-specific health information to recommend prescription changes
when such recommendations are not evidence-based and are not made in
the context of the patient's condition, use of other medications,
prognosis, quality of life and wishes.
The impetus for AMDA's new position was a request from one of the
association's member medical directors, Tom von Sternberg, MD, in
Minnesota. He had received a faxed recommendation from the pharmacy for
prescribing a certain brand-name medication, which included the
patient's health information and a pre-printed prescription. He was
asked to sign and return the prescription if he wished to make this
medication change. Dr. von Sternberg was concerned because the
recommendation was inappropriate for this particular patient and also
because "the format of the fax made it far too possible that a busy
physician would sign the prescription without fully realizing the
intent."
AMDA's Board of Directors looked into the practice and related
issues and found it to be of concern to many of AMDA's members. The
Board decided to develop a position for physicians seeking guidance on
responding to prescription recommendations made by consultant
pharmacists.
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