Community pharmacy

(1) Background: As the U.S. healthcare system evolves from fee-for-service financing to global population-based payments designed to be accountable for both quality and total cost of care, the effective and safe use of medications is gaining increased importance. The purpose of this project was to determine the feasibility of integrating medication therapy management (MTM) services provided by community pharmacists into the clinical care teams and the health information technology (HIT) infrastructure for Minnesota Medicaid recipients of a 12-county community-based accountable care organization (ACO)...

BACKGROUND: Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-waived tests allow for quick, accurate, and noninvasive laboratory testing. Community pharmacists utilize CLIA-waived tests to provide clinical services such as point-of-care (POC) testing to help manage chronic disease and acute illness. OBJECTIVE: To identify key themes in the successful delivery of POC testing services by community pharmacists in Pennsylvania. RESULTS: An initial search identified 51 Pennsylvania pharmacies with a CLIA waiver...

BACKGROUND: A key early step to enhance the integration of community pharmacy services (CPSs) into primary care practice is identifying key determinants of practice (i.e., critical circumstances that influence the implementation of such services). Involving relevant stakeholders in identifying key determinants enables findings to be more relevant to the context in which CPSs will be implemented. OBJECTIVE: To identify key determinants of practice that can influence the implementation of government-funded CPSs in a primary health network in Australia...

OBJECTIVES: To describe the process used by a pharmacy team at a community health center to coordinate and expand diabetes education services (English and Spanish) for a predominantly Hispanic, Spanish-speaking population. SETTING: The project was implemented at 2 clinics in a federally qualified community health center system based in a low-income southwest U.S.-Mexico border community. PRACTICE INNOVATION: This project enhanced accessibility to diabetes education to improve knowledge, skills, and goal setting through existing pharmacy services at the primary clinic and 1 rural satellite clinic...

OBJECTIVE: This study is conducted on Iranian pharmacists, coaches, and athletes regarding sports supplements to assess their knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) regarding sports supplements. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2015. The study population consisted of all community pharmacists, bodybuilders, and bodybuilding coaches. The questionnaire was applied consisting some demographic questions and 25 questions for assessing KAP (6, 9, and 10, respectively)...

Oral health promotion in the community pharmacy: an evaluation of a pilot oral health promotion intervention.

PURPOSE: To examine the relationship between area population density and community pharmacy-based Alzheimer's Disease (AD)-related services: pharmacists' medication knowledge and counseling, immunizations, and in-stock cognitive enhancers in 3 predominantly rural regions of the United States. METHODS: A standardized interview was administered by telephone to a 100% sample of community pharmacies in 3 areas: Northern California/Southern Oregon (n = 206), North and South Dakota (n = 278), and West Virginia (n = 420)...

OBJECTIVE: Colleges have implemented policies to limit tobacco use on-campus; however, the off-campus environment is often overlooked in tobacco control efforts. We assessed availability, marketing, and promotion of cigarettes, snus, and traditional smokeless tobacco (SLT) in a sample of communities surrounding 11 college campuses in North Carolina and Virginia. PARTICIPANTS: Between January-March of 2011, 2012 and 2013, 481 tobacco-selling retailers, including convenience stores, pharmacies and supermarkets, located near campuses were assessed...

Global prevalence of nutraceuticals is noticeably high. The American market is flooded with nutraceuticals claiming to be of natural origin and sold with a therapeutic claim by major online retail stores such as Amazon and eBay. The objective of this commentary is to highlight the possible problems of online-sold nutraceuticals in the United States with respect to claim, adulterants, and safety. Furthermore, there is a lack of strict regulatory laws governing the sales, manufacturing, marketing, and label claims of nutraceutical formulations currently sold in the U...

BACKGROUND: Improving antibiotic use has the potential to decrease health care costs by reducing the incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections, antibiotic-associated adverse events, and expenditures due to unnecessary prescriptions. Antibiotic expenditures in 2009 totaled $10.7 billion in the United States. Since then, national and local antibiotic stewardship initiatives have grown. The purpose of this study was to assess trends in antibiotic expenditures by health care setting in the United States between 2010 and 2015...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to identify the organisational and extraorganisational factors associated with existing variation in the volume of services delivered by community pharmacies. DESIGN AND SETTING: Linear and ordered logistic regression of linked national data from secondary sources-community pharmacy activity, socioeconomic and health need datasets-and primary data from a questionnaire survey of community pharmacies in nine diverse geographical areas in England...

BACKGROUND: Recommending effective minor ailment treatments and using non-prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medicines is a pharmacist's duty. Although common in most European countries, self-medication counseling practices may differ from country to country. OBJECTIVES: This study explored Turkish community pharmacists' attitudes concerning the present self-medication market, professional responsibilities toward patients' self-care, and the usefulness of e-learning for patients' counseling education...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and habits with regard to antibiotic dispensing without medical prescription in Spain. METHODS: A qualitative research using focus group method (FG) in Galicia (north-west Spain). FG sessions were conducted in the presence of a moderator. A topic script was developed to lead the discussions, which were audiorecorded to facilitate data interpretation and transcription. Proceedings were transcribed by an independent researcher and interpreted by two researchers working independently...

BACKGROUND: Medicare Part D was implemented in 2006, introducing change to the community pharmacy marketplace, with profound disruption to independent pharmacy operations across the United States. AIMS: To understand pharmacist perceptions about Part D and their perceived obligation to address Part D issues on behalf of their beneficiaries. METHODS: A nationwide, cross-sectional survey of pharmacists was conducted between April and July 2013...

Objective: To identify healthcare providers' experience and satisfaction for the drug utilization review (DUR) system, their impact on prescription changes following alerts, and difficulties experienced in the system by surveying primary healthcare centers and pharmacies. Design: A cross-sectional nationwide survey. Setting and participants: Approximately 2000 institutions were selected for the survey by a simple random sampling of nationwide primary healthcare centers and community pharmacy approximately practices, and 358 replied...

The PHARMINE ("Pharmacy Education in Europe") project studied the organisation of pharmacy education, practice and legislation in the European Union (EU) with the objectives of evaluating to what degree harmonisation had taken place with the EU, and producing documents on each individual EU member state. Part of this work was in the form of a survey of pharmacy education, practice, and legislation in the various member states. We will publish the individual member state surveys as reference documents. This paper presents the results of the PHARMINE survey on pharmacy education, training, and practice in the Czech Republic...

The introduction of Universal Healthcare Coverage (JKN) in 2014 has changed the landscape of the Indonesian healthcare and affected the community pharmacy sector. This paper investigates perceptions of healthcare and pharmacy stakeholders about the impact of JKN on the practice of pharmacists and pharmacy in both public (Puskesmas) and private (Community or Retail pharmacy) settings. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted from February to August 2016 involving 29 participants representing key stakeholders from different provinces in Indonesia...

INTRODUCTION: Multicompartment compliance aids (MCA) are widely used by patients. They support the management of medication and reduce unintentional nonadherence. MCA are filled with medicines unpacked from their original packaging. Swiss pharmacists currently provide MCA for 1-2 weeks, although little and controversial information exists on the stability of repackaged medicines. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to validate the usefulness of a simple screening method capable of detecting visual stability problems with repackaged medicines...

BACKGROUND: Data on the healthcare utilization of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) patients in primary care settings are scarce. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the healthcare service utilization of patients with HS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, HS patients were compared with two age- and gender-matched control groups-general population enrollees of Clalit Health Services and a group of patients with psoriasis. Healthcare services data included inpatient and outpatient community clinic visits and pharmacy claims for topical and systemic treatments...

OBJECTIVE: To provide a guiding document describing residency training opportunities in ambulatory care for students, postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) residents, practicing pharmacists, and pharmacy educators. SUMMARY: Student pharmacists, residents, practitioners, and educators can benefit from a guiding document describing the various pathways to develop as an ambulatory care practitioner through residency training. The benefits and differences of PGY1 and postgraduate year 2 (PGY2) ambulatory care residency programs are included...