La Plaine

Today we went back to the La Plaine clinic (the home base for the pharmacist). It was a slower day at the clinic because everyone in Dominica is getting ready for their annual creole festival. The people in Dominica are very excited for this upcoming event so in return many of the people skip out on going to the clinic. This gave us a little more time to talk to the pharmacist Kent. He is a very nice guy who jumps around to all the different clinics in the area. He is known by everyone and is heavily relied on in the community. One thing that I in particular noticed that was very different from the way we fill prescriptions in the US is the process a Rx goes through before it goes out to the patient. In Dominica a book gets given to Kent and he looks at it and decides what he has and what he doesn't have. Then he writes on a little plastic baggy the name of medication, the name of the patient, and the directions. He then gives it to the patient and counsels on it. There are absolutely no computers involved in this process, only paper and pens. There is no other person there to help him, he gets no double checks, and the only way he can look information up is in a drug book. This was just a crazy concept for me to grasp. We have become extremely reliant on technology in the US it is hard to think that there are people out in the world that don't have easy access to these types of things. There is no computer telling him that there is a drug interaction, or that they have an allergy. He has to rummage through their book to determine these things. It makes me think about how convenient we have it back home. It is just amazing to me that Kent works like this everyday!
-Beth-