Evaluation of Croatian community pharmacists' patient care competencies using the general level framework.

OBJECTIVES To assess Croatian community pharmacists' patient care competencies using the General Level Framework (GLF). METHODS The competencies of 100 community pharmacists working in 38 community pharmacies were evaluated using an adapted version of the GLF. RESULTS Pharmacists demonstrated the best performance in the competency areas drug specific issues and provision of drug products; the poorest performance was in the competency areas evaluation of outcomes and monitoring drug therapy. Pharmacists' behavior varied the most in the following areas: ensuring that the prescription is legal, prioritization of medication management problems, and identification of drug-drug interactions. CONCLUSIONS Competencies were identified that need to be developed to improve pharmacist interventions in community settings. This study provides the first data on pharmacists' performance in Croatia and serves as a starting point for future studies and actions.