The Role of Pharmacy in Todays Modern Healthcare Environment Essay

The Role of Pharmacy in Todays Modern Healthcare Environment - Essay Example Like all medical fields, the field of pharmacy is facing formidable challenges. According to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in 2000, there are approximately 201,700 pharmacists in the United States with the numbers increasing by about 2,200 annually. Also, pharmacists are the third largest group of health care professionals, exceeded only by physicians and nurses. Unfortunately, most pharmacists entering the workforce today choose to practice in community pharmacies, and a substantial number take positions within the pharmaceutical industry. This is because community pharmacists make higher salaries than hospital pharmacists and the latter spend more time on patient care functions. Thus, this trend has left a shortage of pharmacists available to work in the hospital setting (Raffel and Barsukiewicz, 2002). Another issue that hounds pharmacists today is the danger of committing medical errors. In today's pharmacy environment, there are many potential sources for error when filling a single prescription. For instance, prescription errors may be stratified into problems with drug prescribing, transcribing, administration, and dispensing.