BACKGROUND Pharmacists have shared responsibility to investigate the validity of controlled substance prescriptions (CSPs) that raise concerns, or red flags, and subsequently exercise their right to refuse to dispense a CSP if its validity cannot be verified. Improving access to clinical practice tools, such as prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), may increase availability of a patien...

CONTEXT Despite a decision by the Food and Drug Administration to deny over-the-counter status to emergency contraceptive pills, pharmacists play a crucial role in a woman's access to this medication, especially in areas with large rural populations. Pharmacists' knowledge about and attitudes toward emergency contraceptive pills may affect whether pharmacies carry the medication and whether ind...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate the physicians' perceptions, and expectations of their experiences with the pharmacists at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conducted at HMC between January and March 2006 using a validated questionnaire. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 500 physicians who were working at ...

OBJECTIVES To compare the diagnostic ability of pharmacists, nurses and general practitioners (GPs) for a range of skin conditions. METHODS An online study comprising 10 specifically developed dermatological case studies containing a digital image of the skin condition and a short case history. A total of 60 participants (20 representing each of pharmacists, GPs and primary care nurses) were ...

INTRODUCTION As key experts in supporting medication-decision making, pharmacists are well-positioned to support the incorporation of pharmacogenomics into clinical care. However, there has been little study to date of pharmacists' information needs regarding pharmacogenomics. Understanding those needs is critical to design information resources that help pharmacists effectively apply pharmacog...

OBJECTIVE To explore the potential for community pharmacist prescribing in terms of usefulness, pharmacists' confidence, and appropriateness, in the context of asthma management. METHODS Twenty community pharmacists were recruited using convenience sampling from a group of trained practitioners who had already delivered asthma services. These pharmacists were asked to complete a scenario-base...

Pharmacists have unique position to promote smoking cessation (SC). Furthermore, smoking cessation provision is an obligation of pharmacists recommended by many professional organizations. The aims of the study were to summarize pharmacists’ actual SC service provision, current knowledge about smoking cessation, attitudes toward role of pharmacist in SC, perceived role of pharmacist in SC servi...

OBJECTIVES To assess Minnesota pharmacists' preparedness for the state's medical cannabis program in terms of professional competency in policies and regulations and in pharmacotherapy, as well as their concerns and perceptions about the impact on their practice. The secondary objective was to identify pharmacists' perceptions about ways to reduce potential gaps in knowledge. METHODS A Web-ba...

Background: Errors occur frequently in the use of medicines. Pharmacists play a key role in error identification and make appropriate interventions as they work with other healthcare professionals. These error recovery roles of pharmacists contribute to patient safety. This study was to evaluate the clinical interventions made to drug-related problems at a tertiary care setting. Method: This in...

INTRODUCTION Prevention of medication errors is a priority for health services worldwide. Pharmacists routinely screen prescriptions for potential problems, including prescribing errors. This study describes prescribing problems reported by community pharmacists and discusses them from an error prevention perspective. METHOD For one month, nine community pharmacists documented prescribing pro...