Provision of health /disease screening and medication monitoring /management in New Zealand community pharmacies

Abstract

Background: Access to health /disease screening (HDS) and medication monitoring /management (MM) services in New Zealand has traditionally been through general practitioners. While government and professional organisations are supportive of greater community pharmacy involvement, there has been little research on the extent of current provision or of the views of community pharmacists in this area. Aim: To describe the characteristics and extent of HDS and MM services provided in New Zealand community pharmacies, and to document pharmacists' opinions and perceived barriers in regard to the provision of these services. Methods: A four-part questionnaire was developed to record: the types of HDS /MM services offered by community pharmacies; the opinions of respondent pharmacists regarding these services; the characteristics of community pharmacies offering the services; and the profiles of the respondent pharmacists. The questionnaire was distributed to 879 community pharmacies in New Zealand. Results: There were 458 valid questionnaires returned, with a response rate of 52%. Over half (59%) of the responding pharmacies reported provision of HDS and /or MM services, although there were relatively few 'high level' services such as cardiovascular risk assessment and disease management. Most services were paid for by pharmacy customers, although some District Health Boards paid for services such as Medicines Use Review. Pharmacists cited lack of remuneration, lack of time and limited access to patient information as the main barriers to greater involvement. Conclusion: At the time of this study (2007), community pharmacists in New Zealand were in the 'early adoption' phase concerning the provision of HDS and MM services.

“Basically you wait for an ‘in’’’: community pharmacist views on their role in weight management in New Zealand

“…6 Internationally, community pharmacists (CPs) are delivering an increasing number of extended services, including more preventative services (eg smoking cessation programmes, sexual health services, influenza vaccination, weight management). [7][8][9][10][11] Although opportunities exist for more public health initiatives to be delivered through community pharmacies, 12,13 pharmacists' confidence in their ability to deliver such services has been identified as 'average to low'. 13 Previous empirical research has been conducted in Europe, North America and Australia on the role of the CP in weight management.…”

“…[14][15][16][17][18][19][20] This identified a range of barriers to involvement, including increased workload and lack of remuneration, 16 and a lack of patient awareness of the potential role for pharmacists in this area. 17 While national studies indicate that some CPs are providing, or would like to provide, services related to weight management, 7,8 there has been no work to date that specifically investigates CPs' views of their role. The aim of this study was therefore to explore CPs' opinions of their role in weight management, including the perceived barriers and facilitators to their involvement.…”

A qualitative study exploring professional pharmacy services offered by community pharmacies in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia

“…Return of investment for professional services is also poor compared to other income streams. [41] This consolidates the important role of remuneration in encouraging extended professional pharmacy service provision. Besides, changes are hard to engineer in community pharmacies as pharmacy staff often struggled to move out from their 'comfort zone'.…”

“…Unfortunately, additional personnel are unaffordable during financially challenging times. Return of investment for professional services is also poor compared to other income streams . This consolidates the important role of remuneration in encouraging extended professional pharmacy service provision.…”

Medication review service implementation in community pharmacy settings: Scoping review with focus on implementation studies

“…55,56,[59][60][61][62][63][64] This finding is in accordance with other observations of applied DII strategies for evidence-based healthcare. 70 Additional strategies such as practice support (i.e professional communities, organizational culture, role-expansion, clinical teamwork) and workplace support (i.e workplace restructuring, human resource changes, technology) may be better received by pharmacists compared to policy or finance based interventions that are enacted broadly without sufficient consultation or preparation from community pharmacy businesses. 71 Contrary to expectations, the use of a multi-faceted strategy, while perhaps more acceptable or appealing in many cases, is not necessarily more effective on average than single intervention implementation strategies based on the broader DII literature.…”