Texas pharmacists' opinions about and plans for provision of medication therapy management services.

OBJECTIVES

To determine pharmacist awareness of medication therapy management (MTM), confidence in and intentions to provide MTM, related training needs, and barriers to MTM provision; and to assess pharmacist and practice site characteristics that are related to confidence in providing MTM.

DESIGN

Nonexperimental cross-sectional study.

SETTING

May 2006 in Texas.

PARTICIPANTS

1,833 Texas community pharmacists who were affiliated with the Texas Pharmacy Association.

INTERVENTION

an anonymous, self-administered online survey was e-mailed to participants.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Awareness of MTM legislation, confidence in providing MTM, intentions to provide MTM, and barriers to MTM provision. Pharmacist and practice site characteristics were also collected.

RESULTS

The response rate was 11.8% (n = 157). Overall, pharmacists (>75%) were aware of the three criteria for targeted beneficiaries. They were confident in providing medication therapy review (MTR), creating a personal medication record (PMR), and performing intervention and referral but were only somewhat confident in creating a medication action plan. Pharmacists disagreed or were neutral about having adequate documentation systems for MTM. The majority of respondents intend to become MTM providers (74%) and were interested in additional training (78%). Independent pharmacists, those with adequate documentation systems, and those who had previously provided patient care services were more confident regarding MTM provision.

CONCLUSION

Pharmacist intentions to provide MTM indicate that they are eager to expand their roles as patient care providers. Pharmacist confidence in providing MTR, creating a PMR, and performing the intervention and referral suggest that pharmacists already have many of the skills necessary to provide MTM; however, more education about creating action plans and using documentation systems may help pharmacists become successful MTM providers.