The pharmacist as prescriber.

During the past few years, patients have taken more active roles to provide for their own health needs and to find more economical ways to meet their overall medical care needs. This has created a variety of demands on the health care system. Community pharmacists have responded to these demands by expanding the services and product lines available to the public (e.g. home health care supplies, medical durable equipment, diagnostic home kits, health screening programmes, and public health educational programmes). In Florida, the public pressure for more economical ways to provide health care resulted in the passage of the Pharmacy Self Care Consultant Law. The intent of the law is to provide the consumer with access to effective medications at relatively lower cost and less inconvenience than is involved in seeing a physician for minor self-limiting medical conditions. At the same time, the law has effectively created a third class of drugs which the pharmacist can prescribe. This has given the pharmacist another opportunity to meet the health care needs of the public more effectively.