DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711010278

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH 

SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

PHARMACISTS REACH OUT TO GIVE ADVICE TO PATIENTS

``Brown Bag Day'' at the Naval Hospital galley recently wasn't what it seemed to be.

People who came into the ``brown bag'' corner didn't bring sandwiches and apples. Instead, they hauled out bottles and tubes of medicine.

They came to find out about their medicines from hospital pharmacists who decided to do something positive for the patients to celebrate National Pharmacy Week.

``A lot of people ask about medicine and even understand at the time you're talking to them,'' Lt. Alicia Elam said. ``But then they get home and forget.''

Or a person might be taking one form of medicine for high blood pressure and then a doctor prescribes an alternative. Some people keep on taking both of them, not realizing both medicines are for the same problem.

Cathy Bruno, a civilian pharmacist at the hospital, said many people either don't know or don't pay any attention to some warnings. For instance, many people ignore warnings to stay out of the sun when taking certain medications.

The Navy's pharmacists provide ``counseling'' to every patient who gets medicines from any of their locations in the medical center, Elam said.

``We try for 100 percent counseling and we try to ask open-ended questions,'' she said. Elam, who has sometimes filled in at a retail pharmacy, said that a big frustration in retail is that there is ``no opportunity to talk to patients.''

She's proud of the hospital's outpatient pharmacy, she said, because of their work with patients. She said the outpatient facility has nine pharmacists and 24 technicians who fill 30,000 orders a month.

``But we've cut the average waiting time to 13 minutes while doing 100 percent counseling,'' she said.

She believes patients feel better when they have time to talk about their medicine.

``They need to be able to ask questions,'' she said. And some of the questions are very hard for people to ask, such as, ``will the medicine make me impotent?''

The ``brown bag'' days addressed not only what the prescription medications were for and what they would do, but pharmacists also discussed over-the-counter medicines and how they could impact on patients.

For instance, there are some cough medicines that should not be taken by persons taking heart medications.

``It says that on the package but a lot of people don't read the label,'' Elan said.

In fact, it's a good idea to read the fine print on any drug store remedies. I started doing it when picking up stuff for colds and other minor ailments for my parents who both took prescription medications. I was amazed at what I learned.

A lot of the over-the-counter items are problems for diabetics, Cindy Manno said. Manno, another civilian pharmacists at the hospital, specializes in diabetic medications.

Many of the patent medicines contain sugar, she said, so diabetics always should check out the ingredients lists.

Patients should ask pharmacists to repeat, if necessary, information about how often medicine should be taken and whether with food or on an empty stomach. They should ask what side effects might occur such as drowsiness or nausea, Elam said.

She said she was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the patients know the problems with medication and when to ask questions.

At the ``brown bag'' sessions, the pharmacists were asking permission to call patients' doctors if they saw some problem with medications as prescribed. Or, in some cases, patients have prescriptions from more than one doctor and that really can lead to problems.

Patients should tell each physician what drugs they already are taking, Elan said.

The folks who came with their bags of medicine got the help they needed and I think the project was a wonderful way for the pharmacists to celebrate their profession.

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