Pharmacists are society's experts on drugs. They have been at the interface between prescribers and patients for centuries: in the community particularly they have long provided a direct service to the public. For most of this time they have made medicines and advised on their use, but the growth of the pharmaceutical companies under increasingly stringent legislation has removed much of the ne...

INTRODUCTION The goal of the study was to identify perceived barriers to implementation of vaccination services encountered by independent and small-chain community pharmacies in an urban setting. METHODS Pharmacists in independent and small-chain pharmacies located in 29 Michigan ZIP codes were visited and asked to complete a 5- to 10-min semi-structured interview. RESULTS A total of 93 in...

BACKGROUND Private general practitioners in Malaysia largely operates as solo practices - prescribing and supplying medications to patients directly from their clinics, thus posing risk of medication-related problems to consumers. A pharmacy practice reform that integrates pharmacists into primary healthcare clinics can be a potential initiative to promote quality use of medication. This model ...

BACKGROUND As oral contraceptive pills are available over the counter in pharmacies, pharmacists are professionally responsible for checking and informing patients about every aspect of taking these drugs. Simulated patient method is a new and robust way to evaluate professional performance of pharmacists. OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to evaluate the pharmacy practice of Iranian...

Community pharmacists should work directly for the NHS, mainly in general practices, and not in private chemist stores. This intervention would be radical and unusual, directing people back towards the NHS rather than to private business. I visited a local chemist’s shop recently. On the counter were some healing crystals and on the shelves a plethora of homeopathic preparations. Nearby a sign,...

OBJECTIVE To establish the level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the service received by patients attending the Outpatient Pharmacy regarding the care received. METHOD Two-month long cross-sectional study. The study included all patients who had attended the Outpatient Pharmacy (OP) and had given their consent. Satisfaction was measured using a previously validated survey (Likert-typ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the drug dispensing practices and patients' knowledge on drug use among the outpatients and to identify and analyze the problems in drug prescribing and dispensing. METHODS A prospective cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using World Health Organization (WHO) core drug use indicators from July 13, 2008 to August 15, 2008 in Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara...

BACKGROUND Community pharmacists play a crucial role in optimising medication use and improving patient outcomes, whilst preventing medication misuse and reducing costs. Evidence suggests that pharmacists counselling improves clinical outcomes, quality of life, drug and disease knowledge and reduces health service utilisation. This study aims to investigate the counselling practices of communit...