WSJ this week discussed an article by a family practitioner, Dr. Benjamin Brewer, detailing why he stopped seeing drug reps .His main concern was the time spent and the fact that his patients did not like to wait while he talked to drug-company reps. He found that on average there were 6 rep visits per day, which he later replaced with one to two additional patient visits.
There was also a perception among his patients that drug companies give doctors a lot of free stuff - influencing their prescribing habits. He chose to pass up on the freebies so his office was not viewed as an 'unofficial billboard for the pharmaceutical industry'. So now he buys his own generic pens and has even lost a few pounds from missing lunches with reps!
His main concern in keeping reps out of his office was that he no longer would have free drug samples to give away -- especially to his lower-income patients. However, these samples are not as useful as they are often expensive, new medications that may not have good health plan coverage or may have layers of preauthorization before he can prescribe them. And even if a patient gets a good response - they can't afford them.
As a recommendation he'd like the industry to put their educational programs online, employ less sales staff to make sales calls and instead make a charitable donation each time someone views this information.
Bottom line: replaced time spent with drug reps with additional patient visits and "I'm not fueling the perception of influence by making my office an unofficial billboard for the pharma industry".
Amen brother.
Dr. Mike
