Reply to the paper: Defining professional pharmacy services in community pharmacy

Abstract

Wereadwith great interest the paper byMoullin et al about the definition of professional pharmacy services in community pharmacies. Professional pharmacists and pharmacy researchers have not established a standardized terminology for servicerelated issues in community pharmacies. Given that consistent terminology is essential for good communication, this paper seems to us to be very appropriate and timely. The role of the pharmacist is expanding and has developed to the extent that an international agreement has been reached that the profession should evolve toward providing services beyond the dispensing of medicines. Most of these services should be reimbursed to ensure provider profitability and long-term sustainability. This paper clarifies concepts shedding light on the topic of pharmacy services and provides us with a model of pharmacy service provision. Moullin et al reported that they could not find any established set of terms that included the full range of services provided by community pharmacies. The main biomedical thesaurus, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s MeSH, defines community pharmacy services as the “total pharmaceutical services provided to the public through community pharmacies.” This definition uses the term pharmaceutical, although it is generally associated with the medicinal product rather than professional services.