I Will Never Forget

“Death ends a life, not a relationship” Mitch Albom

Published initially in MTM Pearls in Pharmacy Today: 23: March 2017.

The other day, I had a patient of mine call me at the pharmacy.  The patient is someone that I have developed a strong therapeutic relationship with over the past decade.  The patient can best be described as a challenging person with a strong personality who is not afraid to speak what is on his mind.  This patient can be extremely intimidating, causing many of my staff to avoid any interaction with him.  For some reason, the patient and I connected early on when I started my ownership at Towncrest Pharmacy a decade ago.  The patient trusts my advice, seeks me out when he is at the pharmacy, and always has a story to tell me. 

Unfortunately, he was diagnosed five years ago with cancer.  Over the past five years, I watched how the disease robbed him of his energy, vitality, and physical strength.  During that time, the patient sought my advice and professional opinion of any medication that he was prescribed even his chemo treatments that he received from his oncologist’s clinic, but for which Towncrest Pharmacy did not dispense.  In essence, I had become one of his trusted health care professionals—confident in my clinical recommendations.  Our relationship helped to build a professional collaborative relationship with his oncologist and primary care provider.  My patient often told me that he talks about Towncrest Pharmacy to his other providers and his family and friends.  He tells people that Towncrest Pharmacy “cares for their patients”!

Practice Pearl

The patient was recently admitted to hospice care.  Even during these most difficult and trying times for him, he still calls me.  Now the calls are not so much about his therapy, but rather just how he is doing and providing me with updates.  This past week he called me with his updates and he ended the call with the phrase “Randy, don’t forget about me.”  To be honest, I was not expecting those words from him and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I thought about his words for some time after my call with him.  I realized that lately I had been so busy with my practice, taking care of business decisions, providing clinical services to patients, working on network development activities, and fighting reimbursement issues that I was forgetting why I became a pharmacist—to help people.  When I was younger, I had honest and pure intentions of why I wanted to be a pharmacist.  It wasn’t because of the monies to be made, job security, or a stable career—those were all great aspects of the profession—but deep down its just that I wanted to help people and pharmacy seemed to be the fit best for me.  Unfortunately, I have become so busy fighting the battles confronted by pharmacy and our practice that I was missing the most obvious reasons why I wake up everyday and practice pharmacy—to take care of patients—my patients!

My staff know that I am having a good day when I ask them a routine question.  The question is, “Do you know what we get to do today?”  Without hesitation, my staff know the answer that I am seeking—“We get to practice pharmacy!”  That is how we need to approach each day—not being consumed by the “busy work”, but rather embracing the opportunities afforded to us—taking care of our patients.  I love what I do and I love the impact that I have on my patients’ lives.  I am sure that there are naysayers out there who scoff at the thought that pharmacists can have that much impact on patients.  I am here to say that pharmacists can and do impact their patients every day.  It is not just by our clinical knowledge, but rather the relationships we have formed with our patients –they trust us and confide in us.  Our profession continues to be highly ranked as one of the most trusted professionals—how fortunate we are to be viewed by the public in such a positive light. 

Tomorrow, when I arrive at the pharmacy, I will think about the statement that my patient told me—to not forget about him and I will ask my staff once again, “Do you know what we get to do today?” Hopefully with much enthusiasm they will say, “We get to practice pharmacy.”  No, I will not forget about my patient—I will never forget!