Pharm Report Issue No. 17
A newsletter to update clinic staff on current issues in healthcare
Issue XVII (February 2025)
Blood Pressure Monitoring
Hypertension acts as a silent killer, leading to heart attack, stroke, or complete heart failure. With nearly half of U.S. adults having high blood pressure, every preventative screening has the potential to save lives.
Pharmacists can provide blood pressure screenings and continued monitoring to help manage patient’s blood pressure.
If you think your patients might benefit from home blood pressure monitoring, send a prescription for a blood pressure cuff to the pharmacy. Pharmacists can train your patients on how to use a home blood pressure monitor and educate your patients on what the numbers mean. Plus, the cost of the cuff may be covered by the patient’s insurance!
Want more information about high blood pressure? Check out the American Heart Association’s (AHA) website for understanding blood pressure readings, further management, and other resources!
Prescription Tips
- Please include a diagnosis code on all prescriptions. Telling the pharmacy what the medication is for helps the pharmacist provide better counseling on prescriptions to your patients.
- For prescriptions for medications used topically, please put the approximate size of the area that the medication will be used on in the prescription. Insurance companies have become increasingly aggressive in audits of prescriptions that say, “Apply to the affected area 2 times daily.” Instead, please put something like, “Apply to the forearms and palms of hands 2 times daily.”
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