The Role of Pharmacists in Patient Safety: An Analysis of Patient-Pharmacist Interactions in Community Pharmacy Consultations

摘要

This research was developed in order to identify factors contributing to medication non-adherence in congestive heart failure patients. In a pilot study completed at a community pharmacy in a small midwestern town, pharmacists completed paper surveys regarding their consultations with congestive heart failure patients. Information noted by the pharmacists included patient questions, drug-related problems discovered, patient gender, refill versus new prescription, and patient age. Questions asked most frequently involved cost or financial concerns (15.4% of patients, n = 4) and dosage amount (11.5% of patients, n = 3). All patients obtaining a new prescription had questions as compared to 42.9% of patients (n = 11) refilling a prescription. Future developments may include surveys seeking more descriptive accounts of consultations, researcher interviews with pharmacists, and extension of the study to additional pharmacy sites.