Patient care services in rural Minnesota community pharmacies

Abstract

ObjectiveTo compare the availability of medication therapy management (MTM) services, point-of-care (POC) testing, and disease management resources between rural and urban Minnesota community pharmacies. DesignCross-sectional study. SettingMinnesota in 2006. ParticipantsOwners and operational managers of 564 Minnesota community pharmacies. InterventionMail survey containing structured, quantitative questions. Resulting data were separated to evaluate urban and rural area community pharmacies. Main outcome measuresStaffing trends, MTM services, and patient care services of urban compared with rural community pharmacies in Minnesota. ResultsUrban and rural pharmacies reported allocating nearly the same percent of a typical day to filling and dispensing prescriptions (∼70%). A higher percent of rural community pharmacies offered patient care services in 5 of 15 categories, including drug information services (55.7% vs. 45.6%), provision of durable medical equipment (43.4% vs. 32.6%), dyslipidemia management (7.8% vs. 3.8%), hypertension management (14.6%% vs. 7.3%), and MTM (29.4% vs. 18.7%). ConclusionAlthough the time allocated to dispensing medication was approximately 70% for both urban and rural pharmacies, a significantly higher proportion of rural pharmacies reported providing MTM and other direct patient care services. This may be a result of geographic isolation and greater use of pharmacists as providers of first-contact care in these areas.