Community pharmacists' experiences with the Saskatchewan Medication Assessment Program.

BACKGROUND

The Saskatchewan Medication Assessment Program (SMAP) is a publicly funded community pharmacy-based medication assessment service with limited previous evaluation. The purpose of this study was to explore community pharmacists' experiences with the SMAP.

METHODS

Online, self-administered questionnaire that consisted of a combination of 53 Likert scale and free-text questions. All licensed pharmacists who were practising in a community pharmacy setting in Saskatchewan were eligible to participate.

RESULTS

Response rate was 20.3% ( = 228/1124). Most respondents agreed that the SMAP is achieving all of its intended purposes. For example, 89.7% agreed that the SMAP improved medication safety for patients who receive the service. Most pharmacists enjoyed performing the assessments (84.6%) and were confident in their ability to identify drug-related problems (88.3%). Pharmacists reported lack of time, patients having difficulty coming to the pharmacy and restrictive eligibility criteria as the top barriers to the SMAP. Good teamwork, employer support and personal professional commitment were the top recognized facilitators. Respondents made several suggestions to improve the SMAP in the free-text areas of the questionnaire.

CONCLUSIONS

Community pharmacists in Saskatchewan were positive and confident about performing medication assessments, and most agreed that the SMAP is achieving all of the intended purposes. Respondents also identified several barriers to providing SMAP services, which have resulted in specific recommendations that should be addressed to improve the program.