Taking control of your health can mean a multitude of things to different people and age groups but doing it in partnership with your local health care providers can make you more successful at reaching your goals and maintaining that New Year’s resolution!  Did you know that 90% of Americans live within five miles of a community pharmacy? Depending on your health status you may not be on any medication, but did you know that pharmacies offer an expanded array of services suitable for most patients, even if you are healthy and just trying to stay that way – think vacation! Below are just a few:

Not sure how to find pharmacies in your neighborhood that offer the services you need? The Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA) has developed the PharMap, an integrative community tool that will help you find the services you need, close to home! You can use the  PharMap to locate pharmacy medication services, such as bubble packing or compounding services. You can also find clinical services performed by your pharmacist, such as contraceptive prescribing, TB screening, travel consultations, immunizations etc.

You may be asking yourself, why would I want to find a pharmacist for clinical services? Shouldn’t I be seeing a medical doctor, or a physician assistant for that?

There are a few reasons you might want to add a pharmacist to your health care team. Did you know that pharmacist training is a doctorate program? That’s right, you have access to medical professionals with the highest level of education, just around the corner. Pharmacist’s clinical services may also be quicker, easier to access, and more cost effective. You don’t need to take my word for it, let me tell you more.

First, Pharmacists accept walk-in appointments for many clinical services, and have hours of operation that extend 4-5 hours past most clinics and doctor’s offices. Let’s look at a few scenarios where this might be helpful.

This is just one example of how pharmacist clinical services can save you time, money, and help you out of a tricky situation.

You can also use the tool for more traditional pharmacy services like medication packaging. Let’s talk about another scenario.

The P PharMap is an evolving tool. WSPA highlights services that are important for public health access, and broadly available in our state. It is not meant to be an all-encompassing list of every service any pharmacy may offer – our pharmacies do so many things!!! WSPA will continue to include more and more services as they gain traction around the state! If you are a pharmacy professional that would like to share or update your services within the PharMap, please provide your site's information and services via this  webform.