Pharmacists' Perceptions of Barriers to Providing Appropriate Pharmaceutical Services in Community Pharmacies

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In order to achieve the goals of community pharmacy practice, its legal, labour-related, and economic barriers need to be identified. This study examined pharmacists' perceptions of constraints on providing optimal pharmacy services in order to identify underlying factors and analyse the associations between barriers and pharmaceutical services in community pharmacies. METHODS: A survey targeting pharmacy owners was conducted from May to June 2012 using a structured questionnaire including nine pharmaceutical service items. According to the service provision level, we classified pharmacists as inactive (fewer than 5 items among the listed 9 service items) and active providers (5 or more items). Principal component analysis was used to group significant factors for barriers into four thematic components. Associations between the participants' demographics and pharmacy characteristics and the services provided were explored by logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Participants were 402 pharmacists. Over 60% provided disease management services for hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidaemia. Variables that affected pharmaceutical services included the lack of separate areas for patient counselling (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.18-3.80), and clinical knowledge and information-related barriers (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.36-0.97). CONCLUSION: Strategies for improving clinical knowledge and providing expeditious information are necessary in order to improve community pharmacy services.