Identifying Services Provided in Community Pharmacy Practice Settings

Background: To better address their patients’ needs, community pharmacists are expanding from their traditional role of dispensing to managing medications and providing other care. Objective: This study characterized services reported by pharmacists practicing in community pharmacy settings in the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Study (NPWS). Methods: The 2019 NPWS was conducted via an online survey. E-mails containing survey links were sent to a systematic random sample of 96,110 U.S. pharmacists. The survey allowed tailoring of questions related to specific practice settings and for respondents in community pharmacies included reporting on delivery of twelve services. Other descriptive characteristic questions included pharmacy type, staffing, monitoring activities, self-reported workload, and respondent demographics. An index was created by summing the number of yes responses for the service questions. This index served as the dependent variable in an ordinary least squares regression examining the association of work setting chacateristics with the index. Results: Usable responses were received from 2,150 community pharmacists. The top four services were: administer vaccines (91.1%), patient medication assistance program (83.7%), naloxone dispensing (72.8%) and medication synchronization (67.2%). The regression model was significant, with supermarket pharmacies having a higher service index than large chains. Elevated service index scores were associated with more technicians on duty, CPESN participation, direct communication with primary care providers, practicing under a CPA and  monitoring activities. Conclusions: Pharmacy operational characteristics were important influences on the delivery of services in community pharmacies. These findings can help inform the continuing transformation of community pharmacy practice.