Role Of Community Pharmacists Research Articles

HSD104 Antibiotics Dispensed at Drugstores for Mild Cases of COVID-19 Patients in Northern Punjab, Pakistan

HSD104 Antibiotics Dispensed at Drugstores for Mild Cases of COVID-19 Patients in Northern Punjab, Pakistan

A review and narrative synthesis of community pharmacist-led interventions to tackle medicines for pain that are misused.

To undertake a state-of-the-art review and narrative synthesis of current evidence investigating community pharmacist-led interventions addressing analgesic medication misuse. To achieve the objective, a systematic database search was undertaken during October and November 2020 across Embase, Medline, Web of Science and Scopus. Community pharmacy interventions were mapped to the Behaviour Change Wheel to investigate the pharmacist and patient behaviours addressed by the interventions. Outcomes about process and effects were extracted. A risk of bias assessment was undertaken. Five studies undertaken in the USA and Northern Ireland were included. Brief Motivational Interviewing and Medication Therapy Management and the Opioid and Naloxone Education programme demonstrated positive process outcomes and feasibility in delivery. Intervention functions addressing patient and pharmacist behaviours across the studies included education, training, environmental restructuring and enablement. Restrictions were an additional intervention function targeting patient behaviour incorporated in one study. Pharmacist roles involved the identification of potential misusers/abusers, patient education, long-term management, prevention and referral. Low study numbers, non-experimental designs, high risk of bias, incomplete reporting of interventions and heterogeneous outcome measures limited evidence synthesis. There is limited evidence of pharmacy interventions and their well-tested impact on pharmacists and patients. There is clinical and methodological heterogeneity across studies. It is pragmatic to suggest that a systems-thinking approach is adopted to investigate the potential role of community pharmacists and engage all stakeholders in the design of a theory-informed intervention. More high-quality studies including larger population sizes undertaken for longer periods of time that are rigorously reported are needed to improve the evidence base.

Lien ville-–hôpital et anticancéreux oraux : opinion des pharmaciens de l’Aveyron

The growing number of oral antineoplastic agents delivered by French community pharmacies has modified the job and roles of community pharmacists. Coordination between hospitals (oncology centers) and community pharmacies has become essential for a quality work in this field. The goal of this work was to obtain information about the feeling of the community pharmacies teams in a French county (Aveyron) regarding the communication tools offered by various hospitals with an oncology service (when receiving a beginning prescription for an oral antineoplastic drug), and to evaluate the impact of these tools on their practice. A declarative survey was submitted to the 109 community pharmacies of this county to evaluate their relationship with their nearest oncology centers (including communication tools) and collect their opinion on the quality of the coordination and their pharmaceutical exercise. The response rate was of 54% (59 community pharmacies). Communication between the oncology centers and the pharmacies was limited (only 50% of the pharmacies received information complementary to the prescription), the available tools were not used very frequently (44% of pharmacies didn't use shared medical records) and there was a strong feeling of rupture between the pharmacies and the oncology centers, impacting the quality of their work (46% of respondents indicated being little or incapable of correctly validating the indication of the anticancer drug). This study illustrates the under-use of the available hospital-community pharmacy communication tools and the fact that the pharmacies feel difficulties to correctly deliver oral antineoplastic medications due to a lack of information.

Community pharmacists' routine provision of drug-related problem-reduction services.

ObjectivesThe present study aimed to assess the degree of the provision of services for drug-related problems (DRPs) and the factors affecting provision within the community pharmacy setting in Irbid, a large city in Northern Jordan.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was developed and administered to community pharmacists in Irbid, Jordan during the period from January to May 2017. The survey is composed of background and practice characteristics, services provided routinely by the community pharmacists to address DRPs, and barriers and facilitators for DRP-reduction services. A summated score quantifying the degree of DRP-reduction service provision was calculated, which included overall scores and scores for the different scales and domains. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics and a multivariate linear regression model for factors associated with the high provision of DRP-reduction service.ResultsTwo hundred community pharmacists out of 210 pharmacists approached completed the surveys yielding a response rate of 95.2%. The most frequent DRPs encountered within the routine practice in the community pharmacy were economic aspects (76.0%). The mean total score relating to different DRP-reduction services was 32.9 (58.8%) out of 56 as the maximum possible score. It was estimated that 28.2% of the responding pharmacists provided the service overall (scored more than 50% of the scale). For the assessment, intervention, and referral dimensions, similar percentages of providers of the services were achieved: 59.7%, 61.9%, and 49.0%, respectively. Lower rates of providers were achieved on the documentation scale (12.9%). The lack of recognition of the pharmacist role by physicians was the most commonly reported barrier to effective DRP-reduction services among community pharmacists (78.9%). The ability to receive external guidance was indicated by the majority of surveyed pharmacists (94.5%) as a potential facilitator to DRP-reduction services in this study. Predictors associated with high total scores were the presence of medical records for the patients in the pharmacy, patients contact the pharmacy using email, a high satisfaction in professional relationships with physicians, and pharmacists’ age.ConclusionEven though community pharmacists in this study have been shown to deliver certain activities to address DRPs to a high degree, the overall rate of DRPs services was suboptimal. Community pharmacists reported several barriers that should be taken into consideration to facilitate the role of community pharmacists in providing adequate DRP reduction services to patients.

ASSESSMENT OF THE LEBANESE COMMUNITY PHARMACIST KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE AND BARRIERS REGARDING THE PREVENTION OF OSTEOPOROSIS

Osteoporosis is a silent skeletal disease that is often recognized when fractures occur as a result of minimal trauma. Limited studies have assessed the degree of pharmacists’ involvement in osteoporosis prevention, risk-assessment/screening and physician referrals. To assess the Lebanese community pharmacists’ knowledge, practice and barriers regarding osteoporosis prevention. Secondary aim is to assess the pharmacists’ ability to identify high-risk patients who should be referred for bone mineral density (BMD) testing. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Beirut, Lebanon between September and October 2020 using self-administered questionnaire. Pharmacists completed a multi-component questionnaire that consisted of socio-demographic characteristics, practices, knowledge and barriers in relation to osteoporosis prevention and high-risk identification. Frequencies and proportions were used to describe the data. Simple and multiple linear regression analysis were used to examine the determinants of knowledge in the study population. The majority of pharmacists were rarely/never involved in counseling patients on osteoporosis risk factors (57.5%) and healthy lifestyle habits (62.5%) as well as engaging in risk-assessment (63.1%), screening using Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) (0%) and physician referrals (sometimes-55.6%). In addition, pharmacists were also scarcely involved in reducing the risk of falls (55.1-59.4%). Pharmacists were knowledgeable about osteoporosis prevention however had important gaps in the diseases that increase osteoporosis risk as well as in FRAX tool, indications that require BMD testing and increased risk of fall medications. Significant predictors of knowledge were receiving postgraduate training on osteoporosis and earning the pharmacy degree from a university in Lebanon. Barriers to providing osteoporosis services included lack of time, staff, space, patients’ interest in prevention activities and limited inter-professional collaboration. The study findings provided important insights on the practices, knowledge and barriers of pharmacists regarding osteoporosis prevention and high-risk identification. Concerted efforts of multiple stakeholders are needed to promote the active role of community pharmacists in order to reduce the risk of morbidity, mortality and health-care costs associated with osteoporosis and related fractures.

Public perceptions of the role of community pharmacy in public health

Abstract Introduction Community pharmacies are well-placed to provide public health interventions, yet they are underutilised for services of this nature (1), which are needed to achieve public health policy goals. Previous qualitative studies have explored public perceptions of the role of community pharmacy in delivering public health services (2). However, to date, these views have not been captured quantitatively, which means it is not clear if the general public shares these views. Aim The aim was to design a questionnaire to obtain public perceptions of the role of community pharmacy in public health interventions and to establish any barriers and facilitators that exist regarding community pharmacy utilisation. Methods A questionnaire was developed based on published literature and semi-structured interviews. Following initial piloting of a paper-based then online format (by ten individuals) a 42-item questionnaire was completed digitally via Qualtrics by a self-selecting sample of the general public recruited through social media (i.e., Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) in May and June 2021. Principal component analysis with Varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying factors (scales) of the questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha analysis was undertaken to ensure good internal consistency. Information on frequency of community pharmacy use and for what reason was collected. Content and thematic analysis were conducted on the free text qualitative comments. Content analysis was conducted first to observe which aspects of the questionnaire were mentioned the most. Further to this, thematic analysis was conducted as there were responses which did not fit into the content analysis. Results There were 306 valid questionnaire responses, where 235 (76.8%) were females. The mean age was 34.5 years (SD=15.09). Factor analysis identified four scales with a total of 18-items, all demonstrating good internal consistency. Scales were labelled as (n=number of items; ἀ =Cronbach’s alpha value): Expertise (n=3, ἀ =0.815); Role (n=4, ἀ =0.745); Privacy (n=3, ἀ =0.770) and Relationship (n=8, ἀ =0.862). Scale scores indicated that a lack of awareness of their role and expertise was a barrier and adequate privacy was an important facilitator in delivering public health services. In support of the quantitative findings, content analysis identified lack of privacy as a dominant theme, and further thematic analysis uncovered lack of knowledge of community pharmacy’s role in public health as an important barrier to uptake of services. Thematic analysis uncovered the themes ‘lack of knowledge of services’ and ‘accessibility’. Conclusion The outcome of this study was the development of a four scale, 18-item questionnaire to capture public perceptions of the community pharmacy’s role in public health. This can, therefore, be used in future studies aiming to explore public perceptions of community pharmacy. Strengths include being the first questionnaire to explore perceptions of community pharmacy. Weaknesses include the possibility of bias using social media in recruitment. This could be tackled using paper versions of the questionnaire in different settings. Further research is needed to continue testing the psychometric properties of the questionnaire with consideration given to the addition of a fifth scale to measure perceptions of Accessibility. References (1) Kember, J., Hodson, K., & James, D. H. (2018). The public’s perception of the role of community pharmacists in Wales. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice (26), 120-128. (2) Gidman, W., & Cowley, J. (2013). A qualitative exploration of opinions on the community pharmacists’ role amongst the general public in Scotland, International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, (21), 288-296.

Community pharmacy practice related to the COVID-19 pandemic: barriers and facilitators

BackgroundCommunity pharmacies provide an important healthcare service. Their significant value has been further highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.ObjectivesTo identify and categorize potential barriers and facilitators to the role of community pharmacists during the pandemic and their association with demographic factors.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of community pharmacists was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire during April 2020 across all regions of Egypt.Key findingsRespondents (n = 1018; 98.4% response rate) revealed practical and psychological barriers, including inadequate levels of pandemic preparedness (mean 61.43%; ±SD 0.47), inadequate working environments (mean 56.23%; ±SD 0.49) and uncooperative behaviour from stakeholders (mean 65.3%; ±SD 0.47).The majority of respondents emphasized the universal, region-independent necessity for facilitators, including the availability of timely (94.9%) guidance (97.4%) published by the Egyptian healthcare authority (94.6%), in electronic format (82.1%), through smartphone application (80.0%) and the provision of a dedicated telephone hotline (89.5%). Furthermore, authorities must use the media to manage public perceptions (97.2%) and increase public trust (94.8%) towards the pharmacist.ConclusionsThe barriers and facilitators identified herein could improve service provision in an integrated manner by overcoming the reported inadequate level of preparedness (barrier) through the provision of electronic guidance (facilitator), and the use of the media in managing public perceptions and trust (facilitators) to reduce the panic that negatively affects the working environment (barrier) for pharmacy staff. The varied level of healthcare authority cooperation reported in many regions requires further investigation.

Barriers to Medication Review Process Implementation-Cross-Sectional Study among Community Pharmacists in Jordan.

The medication review process (MRP) is an extended, vital role of community pharmacists in improving health outcomes of medication use, yet it is neither systematically nor comprehensively provided bycommunity pharmacies in Jordan. This study aimed to identify the potential barriers hinderingMRP implementation bycommunity pharmacists in Jordan. A total of 550 community pharmacists electronically received a previously constructed and validated Arabic questionnaire explicitly developed to assess the current medication review practices and factors hindering the MRP, of whom 417 answered the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 75.8%. Among the investigated six categories’ seventeen barriers tothe implementation of the MRP, the highest rating was found for remuneration barriers (55.8%), followed by barriers related to regulations and patients, which scored 52.3% and 48.8%, respectively. Resource-related barriers were recognizedby 44.6% of participants, while qualifications and barriers related to physicians scored 42.9% and 41.8%, respectively. Although community pharmacists in Jordan are eager to extend their roles from traditional to more patient-centered ones, they encounter various barriers hinderingsuch development. Regulation adjustments accompanied by cost-effective remuneration and proper training are strong facilitators for community pharmacists to initiate the medication review service; make available the needed resources; and invest efforts, time, and money to operate it.

Knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers towards smoking cessation services among community pharmacists.

Introduction:With more than one billion current smokers, 80% of them living in low and middle-income countries, tobacco smoking is considered a global public health problem. Jordan has one of the highest estimate rates of tobacco use in the region and world. Still, tobacco use interventions, that could significantly reduce the number of smoking-related diseases and reduce health care costs, are scarce. While such interventions could be carried out by community pharmacists, given their unique position to counsel patients and provide effective cessation interventions, the role of community pharmacists in tobacco control services in Jordan has never been fully investigated.Objective:This study aimed at assessing the community pharmacists’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice towards smoking cessation and identifying their perceived barriers for smoking cessation counselling utilizing a sample of community pharmacists in Northern Jordan.Method:A cross-sectional study was conducted among community pharmacies in Irbid city, North of Jordan, between April and August 2018. A random sample of 95 pharmacies was selected using the multistage random sampling technique. A structured English questionnaire, consisting of 5 parts, was used. The Survey assessed pharmacists’ socio-demographics, knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers related to tobacco use cessation services.Results:One hundred and fifty pharmacists completed the survey. Their mean age was 30.71±10.10 years. The mean of pharmacists’ knowledge score was 3.74±0.38, while their positive and negative attitude were 3.87±0.43 and 3.18±0.66 respectively. Pharmacists’ mean smoking cessation practice was 2.01+0.64. Barriers to providing cessation interventions included the lack of training on nicotine replacement therapy products (86%), the lack of smoking cessation programs (84%) and low demands from smokers (83.3%).Conclusion:While knowledge related to tobacco use cessation services among the community pharmacists was sub-optimal, a good positive attitude and a low practice levels were observed. The lack of educational materials, low patients’ demand, knowledge deficits, low training and the lack of cessation programs have been identified as barriers hindering the provision of smoking cessation services. Furthermore, the study identified factors that will increase community pharmacists’ participation in smoking cessation, help in raising pharmacists’ awareness of smoking as a public health problem and the importance of their role.

Community Pharmacists' Knowledge, Willingness, and Readiness to Prescribe Oral Contraceptives in Saudi Arabia.

Background: The role of community pharmacists (CPs) in various healthcare settings is well documented in the literature including providing safe and easy access to medications. Oral contraceptives (OCPs) are the most frequently used method of terminating unwanted pregnancies worldwide. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the Community pharmacist’s knowledge, willingness, and readiness to prescribe OCPs in Saudi communities in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is across sectional, self-administered questionnaire-based study conducted between May and November 2021 in the central region of Saudi Arabia. The results were presented as frequencies and percentages. Chi-square tests were used to sort significant association between groups. Results: Out of 368 CPs who got the questionnaire, 347 completed (94.3%). Most of CPs were be-tween the ages of 25 and 35, with 76.9% working in chain pharmacies. Of the surveyed CPs, 45.5% had >24 months of experience in community pharmacies. 41.8% of them prescribed more than six prescriptions for OCPs/week. The patients’ safety (77.2%), physician’s resistance (54.5%), and CPs objection based on religious purposes (36.9%) and lack of time (29.7%) were the most commonly cited barriers among CPs. CPs who worked in chain pharmacies were significantly too busy (p = 0.038) to prescribe OCPs. Also, community pharmacists with experience of more than two years significantly agreed not to prescribe OCPs due to religious convictions (p = 0.009). Conclusion: The current study revealed that most of the CPs were knowledgeable about OCPs. Additionally, most of them were likely to prescribe oral contraceptives. We further suggest overcoming the barriers associated with contraceptives among CPs and providing sufficient training to improve the oral contraceptive prescriptions in CPs is needed.

The Role of Community Pharmacists in Addressing Medication-related Issues for Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally. To prevent relapse and prolong disease-free survival, adjuvant endocrine treatment such as selective oestrogen receptor modulators and aromatase inhibitors are being used. However, such oestrogen-blocking agents can cause serious adverse events. Community pharmacists are ideally positioned to ensure that such adverse events are addressed promptly and competently through their comprehensive knowledge of medicines. To identify the skills and training required to improve community pharmacists' communication in breast cancer settings regarding adjuvant endocrine treatments and to propose a conceptual framework for setting up such breast cancer service, we reviewed the literature using PubMed and performed a brief survey of eight community pharmacists using semi-structured interview method. To improve pharmacists' competencies in breast cancer settings, a clear framework for the proposed service on the national level is required. In addition to communication skills training programmes and problem-solving competences, reviewing the pharmacy pre-registration training curriculum and creating appropriate platforms that monitor medications in breast cancer patients are advocated.

Availability of Essential Antidotes and the Role of Community Pharmacists in the Management of Acute Poisoning: A Cross-Sectional Study in Ethiopia.

BackgroundMorbidity and mortality related to acute poisoning is a major public health issue in both developing and developed countries. Community pharmacists have a crucial role in ensuring drug availability, increasing drug safety, counseling patients, overdose risk reduction and management, and provision of appropriate drug information. This study aimed to assess the availability of necessary antidotes in community pharmacies in Gondar and Bahir-Dar cities, Ethiopia, and the role of community pharmacists in the management of acute poisoning.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in Gondar and Bahir-Dar cities. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was used for data collection and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0 was used for data analysis. Chi-square analysis was computed to identify the associated factors with a confidence interval of 95% and a P value less than .05 was used as a cut-point for statistical significance.ResultsOut of 101 community pharmacies invited to participate in the study, 80 of them completed the survey with a response rate of 79.2%. The overall mean antidote availability score was .59 (SD = .837), which falls within the definition of Poor availability. None of the pharmacies had kept all of the antidotes, and the maximum number of an antidote kept by a single pharmacy was 7 out of nineteen essential antidotes surveyed. The most commonly reported reason for the unavailability of essential antidotes was stock was not ordered (56.3%) followed by stock ordered but not delivered from suppliers (wholesalers) (20.0%). More than 3 fourth of the respondents (83.8%) had poor knowledge about the antidotes for the common poisonings.ConclusionThere was a significantly very low availability of essential antidotes in the community pharmacies. Strategies should be implemented to improve pharmacist’s knowledge about antidotes, and management of poisoning emergencies through on-job training and provision of reference materials.

A Review on the Role of Community Pharmacists on Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Antibiotics are the "marvel medicines" for fighting bacteria. For the past years, multiple varieties of antibiotics have performed well in combating microbes. However, over time, bacteria have developed a way to counter antimicrobial agents' effects and become resistant to antibiotics. The goal of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of published studies on the role of community pharmacists, as drug experts, in antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). Thus, a search strategy was employed to gather existing literature using the following databases: Elsevier, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct. The literature retrieved was classified and analyzed according to the perception, knowledge, and practices toward AMS programs. After evaluation, results show that pharmacists are essential when creating and implementing ASPs in inpatient and outpatient settings. They can monitor and report AMS indicators and ensure all legal specifications are followed for accreditation and payment reasons. Most pharmacists always/often dispense antimicrobials with a prescription, evaluate the prescribed antimicrobials if they follow the guidelines, and communicate with prescribers whenever they have difficulty reading the prescription. Additionally, approximately 85% of pharmacists agreed that to enhance the understanding of antimicrobial stewardship, pharmacists should be exposed to relevant workshops and conferences and that “antimicrobial stewardship programs reduce the problem of antimicrobial resistance.” However, the results indicate that appropriate actions are still needed to rationalize antimicrobial use in the future and that more training and access to AMS guidelines are necessary.

Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study on Perceptions and Roles of Community Pharmacists in the Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disorders in Northwest Ethiopia.

IntroductionCommunity pharmacy professionals are among the initial healthcare providers and could play crucial roles in preventing and managing cardiovascular disorders. This study aimed to assess perceptions and involvements of community pharmacy professionals in the prevention and management of cardiovascular disorders in Gondar city and nearby rural towns, Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA multi-centered cross-sectional survey was conducted on community pharmacy professionals in Gondar city and the nearby rural towns from June to July 2021. Independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to show mean score differences of pharmacists towards the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases. A 95% confidence interval with a P-value of < 0.05 in the tests was considered statistically significant.ResultsOf the 223 initial samples, 210 completed the survey and resulted in a 94.2% response rate. The average perception and involvement scores of the community pharmacy professionals towards the prevention and treatment of the cardiovascular syndromes were 4.1 and 3.8, respectively. Numerous professionals (>86%) agreed on weight reductions, alcohol consumption restrictions and physical exercises to decrease cardiovascular risks. Pharmacy professionals recruited from Gondar city had significantly higher mean scores compared with pharmacy professionals involved from rural towns (P < 0.001). A significant difference in mean involvement score was also noted in regarding the numbers of clients serving/day (P = 0.026).ConclusionCommunity pharmacy professionals had good perceptions on prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases. However, their level of involvement in measuring weight, blood pressure and glucose level, dispensing equipment for home blood pressure and glucose monitoring and keeping records of patients needs to be encouraged. Professionals might benefit from enhanced training to increase their knowledge and confidence.

Role of pharmaceutical care in therapeutic regimens within the community pharmacy

The concept of pharmaceutical care (PC) has existed as a professional philosophy for more than 30 years. However, for a long period of time, little had been done for its integration into the regular practice of healthcare provision. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting increase in patient influx in the community pharmacies (CP) encouraged the exploration and establishment of new healthcare services provided within the CP. Nevertheless, these services of PC are still novel, and more can be done to expand the community pharmacists’ current role in primary healthcare. This can be achieved by improving and expanding the newly established services, all while incorporating new ones, for the benefit of public health and the reduction of avoidable healthcare expenditures. This article reviews information about the benefits of this service regarding patient health and the reduction of financial expenses pertinent to adverse drug events within the setting of the CP. Adverse drug events account for significant healthcare expenses and patient distress due to relevant symptoms, emergency doctor visits, and increased hospitalization rates. Several studies conducted internationally have investigated the positive impact of PC practiced by community pharmacists. In spite of results sometimes presenting a non-continuous pattern, PC applied under specific conditions has tangible positive outcomes. Congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes mellitus patients presented fewer hospital admissions, better symptom control, and higher adherence in comparison to control groups, while a study on asthma patients revealed improved inhalation techniques. All intervention groups reported psychological improvement and a better understanding of their treatment. Special reference is made to the importance of this service for patients receiving anti-cancer treatment and how community pharmacists can have a crucial role in designing, monitoring, and re-designing these therapeutic schemes whose complexity and related adverse drug events negatively affect patient adherence. The role of community pharmacists was very important, especially for primary care, for both patients and healthcare systems during the pandemic, and it seems that it will remain decisive in the post-COVID era as well. The increased complexity of therapy and polypharmacy creates the need for organized, active participation of pharmacists in healthcare provision so that they can use their knowledge and skills under continuous cooperation with other healthcare professionals, thus providing coordinated services for the benefit of the patient.

Exploring the role of community pharmacists in preventing the onsite infection during COVID-19 pandemic

Exploring the role of community pharmacists in preventing the onsite infection during COVID-19 pandemic

Pharmacists as accessible health care providers: quantifying the opportunity.

BACKGROUND: Community pharmacists are well positioned to improve patient access to care, which may assist value-based care programs in reaching patients. While pharmacy accessibility is broadly acknowledged, much of the research supporting accessibility claims is poor quality. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the accessibility of pharmacists in comparison with physicians or qualified health care professionals (QHP) in a commercially insured population. METHODS: IBM MarketScan claims data from 2018 were used for this cross-sectional study. Beneficiaries included in the primary analysis were aged 18-64 years, enrolled with pharmacy benefits in 2018 for 12 months, and had at least 1 valid prescription drug claim or evaluation and management (E&M) code in 2018. Unique pharmacy visits were defined using a 6-day fill window for prescription fill dates, while visits to physicians or other QHP were defined as unique service dates tied to an E&M code. We assessed differences in visit frequency for the full sample, those with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), and "superutilizers" (top 5% based on total cost of care). Our statistical approach included descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon sign rank test. RESULTS: After applying the inclusion criteria, 11,720,958 beneficiaries were included in the full sample. The MCC cohort contained 13.8% of the total sample (mean [SD] age: 50.8 [10.8]; 908,880 [56.1%] female). Finally, the superutilizers were 57.3% female with an average age of 48.4 years and comprised 5.3% of the total sample. The median number of pharmacy and physician or QHP visits for the full sample were 5 and 3 (P < 0.0001), yielding a pharmacy to physician or QHP visit ratio of 1.7:1. The MCC cohort had a median of 13 pharmacy visits and 7 physician or QHP visits (ratio 1.9:1; P < 0.0001), and the superutilizers had a median of 14 pharmacy visits and 9 physician or QHP visits (ratio 1.6:1; P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that patients visit their community pharmacies almost twice as often as they visit their physicians or other QHP. Study findings emphasize the accessibility of community pharmacists and highlight the role of community pharmacists in improving patient engagement in all care programs, including value-based care programs. DISCLOSURES: The database infrastructure used for this project was funded by the Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health; the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC; the CER Strategic Initiative of UNC's Clinical Translational Science Award (UL1TR001111); and the UNC School of Medicine. All authors are employed by the UNC School of Pharmacy. Urick declares consulting fees from Cardinal Health. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Portions of this work were previously presented at the AMCP 2021 Virtual, April 12-16, 2021.

Emerging Roles of Community Pharmacist in Public Health: A Review on ASIA

This study's aim was to conduct a comprehensive review of previously published research publications related to the emerging roles of community pharmacists in public health in Asia. It aims to analyze the new roles that community pharmacists are being called upon to fill in Asian regions in public health with also a focus on maximizing the full capacity of pharmacist skills and development to public health, a continuing advocate, and first-line empowerment of providing pharmacy information queries. The written works of this study utilized a systematic search of existing literature, including articles reporting on the emerging roles of community pharmacists in public health, using the following databases: Cochrane, Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed/Medline, and Research Gate. Hand searching relevant articles on the research topic were employed to help ensure the confinement of all necessary existing literature/articles. The intervention or services types are classified based on the following: smoking cessation services, weight management services, alcohol reduction services, chronic disease management, drug misuse prevention and management services, and immunization and vaccination services; each comprises different major processes aiming to improve an individual's health status providing ways upon validation that are crucial for the betterment of public healthcare. In accordance with the studies, community pharmacist-led public-health programs markedly strengthened the efficiency, steadfastness, and cost-effectiveness of the allocation of public health resources whilst still optimizing the health of clients and patients, specifically whenever it arrives at assessing prospective issues and individuals who seek specialized care. Notwithstanding such, community pharmacy operations still necessitate modification to satisfy the evolving demands of consumers of modern medications. Training must attempt to boost pharmacists' confidence in supplying these services if community pharmacies are to elevate the public health services they serve. A proactive approach to the delivery of public health care by confident, well-trained pharmacists should have a favorable impact on client attitudes and health.

Competency and Attitude of Pharmacists in the Management of Common Ailments Among Community Pharmacy in Adama Town, Adama, Ethiopia, 2021

Community pharmacists are one of the most accessible of all health workers in the community, who are playing a key role in the delivering the primary health care services. Traditionally pharmacists' role is mostly confined to dispensing medication and provides public health services rarely. The current role of community pharmacists should include dispensing medicines with a prescription or without a prescription, advice patients during dispensing of prescription and non-prescription drugs, deliver drug information to health professionals, patients and to the public, and promotes health programmes. This advancement in pharmacy service demands competent pharmacists. The objective of the study was to evaluate the competency and attitude of pharmacists in the management of common ailments among community pharmacies in Adama Town, Adama, Ethiopia, 2021. A cross sectional study was conducted on 44 pharmacists working at community pharmacies in Adama Town from April 30 to July 30, 2021. Data was collected by face-to-face interview. Data was cleared, categorized, compiled, and coded before analyzed by using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics computed for the study variables and frequency distribution tables and figures was used to describe the findings. Majority of the study participants, 23 (52.3%), were males, the mean age of the participants is 33 years old. The study revealed that 26 (59.1%) were competent [mean > 0.7815, SD=0.27] while 40.9% were incompetent [mean < 0.7815]. Accordingly 50% of respondents had positive attitude (mean > 3.67) while the rest, 50% were negative attitudes. Lack of knowledge or clinical skills, lack of access to additional training programs and lack of time are the major reasons for incompetency. Majority of the community pharmacist are competent. But, 50% of the pharmacists had a negative attitude toward managements of common ailments. Reasons for incompetency such as inadequate knowledge, lack of access to training programs, inadequate time and the negative attitudes of pharmacists may be barriers for managements of common ailments. Town Health Bureaus should organize and provide in-service training and advocate managements of common ailments as one area in a continuous professional development program to pharmacists working in community pharmacies.

Vacancy rate for community pharmacist roles in England has doubled since 2017

Community pharmacies are having to cope with major gaps in their workforce, results from a survey published by Health Education England (HEE) on 20 January 2022 have shown. The ‘Community Pharmacy Workforce Survey’, published on 20 January 2022, shows vacancy rates of up to 20% for some community pharmacy roles, with “notable variations” in recruitment […]