pharmacy profit

[Guest guest]

, sharon weizenbaum <sweiz@r...> wrote:

> I wonder just how big a problem this really is - meaning practitioners

> prescribing unnecessary herbs for the sake of profit. Personally, I

have

> never heard of a case that involved a practitioner of .

 

I find this to be just as common amongst acupuncturists, chiros and ND's

in my experience. Perhaps you just have honest friends, but when you work

in under a contract where your weekly paycheck is affected by herb sales,

this may alter one's prescribing. It is called sales commission and it is

part of american mentality and it is considered unethical in the practice

of medicine. Having worked in large acu schools for 15 years, I am pretty

sure that the folks around me are no more or less guilty of greed,

jealousy, cheating and lying than any other group I have worked with.

This is not a matter of handling an existing problem as much as it is a

consideration of the ethical face we present to the public. We stand

outside the ethical fold by maintaining that standard obstacles to

pharmacy profiteering don't apply to us because we are somehow free from

greed.

 

I believe we should trust each other to evaluate our own

> circumstances and comfort levels and then trust each other to decide how

we

> run our clinics.

 

why not just abandon licensing and examination and even education

altogether and just trust our healing brethren to do the right thing. Of

course that is ludicrous. I just think we should take the same position

that has been arrived at by other professions that have considered this

ethical dilemma. Give the public the facts and let them decide with their

pocketbooks

 

Mark is right. Pharmacy takes up time that could be spent treating

patients. If one had a full practice, the issue would be moot. But is it

still OK to make up the revenue shortfalls even in the early days of one's

practice by pharmacy profiteering. As a profession, we should say no just

for sake of appearances. As herbal med becomes more prominent in our

field, I don't want to see our reputation tarnished by stain of the patent

medicine salesman. What people do after that is up to them and their

patients.

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre

minds " -- Albert Einstein

[Guest guest]

Dear

 

Are you, and the others, saying it is unethical for a practitioner to maintain an herbal pharmacy and dispense herbs directly from it to patients? I maintain an herb pharmacy because I want to have control of the quality, and because I want to send my patients away with herbs so they don't have to make two stops. I make sure my charges are reasonable and in fact, I sell herbs for less money per bag than many other practitioners.

 

Julie

 

 

[Guest guest]

What I hear Todd saying that there is a potential for abuse for profit

among practitioners who make profits on herbs, vitamins and other

products. The antidote to this problem, in my opinion, is medical

ethics. Also, in Chinese medicine, we tend to use one prescription at

a time, with few exceptions.

 

Risking one's credibility to make as much money as possible on

substances the patient doesn't need isn't worth it. In the end, the

practitioner's reputation and honesty are what guarantee's his/her's

ability to make a living. In a similar vein, squeezing in as many

patients as possible burns out the practitioner, and destroys longevity.

 

While the Western medical profession doesn't have this problem, it has

a new one. . . pharmaceutical companies advertising drugs in the media

to potential patients, who then ask for these drugs from doctors. This

raises many ethical concerns. Also, many physicians advertise drugs on

pens, paper pads and the like. Not to mention drug companies paying

doctors to speak about drugs at seminars, or paying for retreats for

doctors, which equally biase physicians.

 

 

On Tuesday, November 19, 2002, at 01:39 PM, Julie Chambers wrote:

 

> Dear

>  

> Are you, and the others, saying it is unethical for a practitioner to

> maintain an herbal pharmacy and dispense herbs directly from it to

> patients? I maintain an herb pharmacy because I want to have control

> of the quality, and because I want to send my patients away with herbs

> so they don't have to make two stops. I make sure my charges are

> reasonable and in fact, I sell herbs for less money per bag than many

> other practitioners.

>  

> Julie