Evaluation of Frequency of Encounters With Primary Care Physicians vs Visits to Community Pharmacies Among Medicare Beneficiaries

Berenbrok, Lucas A.; Gabriel, Nico; Coley, Kim C.; Hernandez, Inmaculada

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.9132

Cited by 113 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professional with 94% of the population living within five miles of a community pharmacy [2]. This proximity, along with pharmacists' frequent interaction with patients (patients see pharmacists twice as often as their physicians), and the passage of the PREP Act allows pharmacists nationwide to perform COVID-19 testing and potentially meet an unmet need in their communities [12,13]. Pharmacists are clinically capable and legally allowed to perform services beyond dispensing of medications.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacists’ Willingness to Provide Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Services and the Needs to Support COVID-19 Testing, Management, and Prevention

et al. 2020

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The need for increased testing is pivotal in the response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Recently, through the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, pharmacists were given the ability to order and administer COVID-19 tests, giving them a better opportunity to engage in the pandemic response across the nation as well as in Idaho. This survey sought to determine Idaho pharmacists' willingness to provide different COVID-19 related services, assess needed resources to provide such services, and identify and prioritize other unmet community needs. We conducted a ninequestion, cross-sectional survey distributed to pharmacists with addresses located in Idaho. All questions in the survey were optional and focused on pharmacist's willingness to provide services, what resources and additional training they would need, difficulty with 90-day prescriptions, and solicited additional feedback using an open-ended question. A total of 229 responses were received, representing all areas of pharmacy practice, with approximately half from community settings. The majority of respondents (70%) were willing to provide COVID-19 testing. Adequate staffing, changes to workflow, and the need for billing and clear reimbursement mechanisms were most frequently cited as barriers to contributing to the COVID-19 response. In summary, we found that pharmacists are very willing to help during this crisis, but their involvement may be better facilitated with the removal of barriers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacists’ Willingness to Provide Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Services and the Needs to Support COVID-19 Testing, Management, and Prevention

et al. 2020

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“…Also, with hours extending beyond those of a typical provider office, the pharmacy offered broader windows for vaccination, presenting an opportunity for parents to take their children for vaccination without having to take time off of work (a particular barrier for many low-income families) for travel and appointments for what they may perceive as a nonessential vaccine. This also took into account the many adolescents who only present at a provider’s office for required vaccines, sports physicals, and/or when sick, as adolescents have demonstrated inconsistency in well-visit attendance [ 44 ]. The pharmacy provided additional convenience in that a pre-scheduled appointment was not necessary for vaccination, administration was quick, and the location was easy to get in and out of for patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enrolling a rural community pharmacy as a Vaccines for Children provider to increase HPV vaccination: a feasibility study

et al. 2021

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Background Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. with over 80 million infected individuals. High-risk strains are associated with 6 different cancers. Although infection is preventable, U.S. vaccination rates remain suboptimal and there are noted disparities between urban and rural communities due to economic barriers, lack of access, and low awareness and education. Methods The current pilot study sought to overcome these barriers through an interprofessional collaborative enrolling a community pharmacy in a rural, medically underserved Alabama county as a Vaccines for Children (VFC) provider to provide free vaccines to eligible adolescents. Program evaluation was conducted to determine the intervention’s feasibility. Potential efficacy was assessed by analyzing county-level HPV vaccination uptake and completion rates using state immunization registry data. Results Over the 8-month study, 166 total vaccines were administered to 89 adolescents ages 10–18, including 55 doses of HPV vaccine, 53 doses of Tdap vaccine, 45 doses of meningococcal vaccine, and 13 doses of influenza vaccine. Among these adolescents, mean age was 12.6 years old, and 64 (71.9%) were VFC patients. The pharmacy recorded an increase in total vaccine administration of 158.8%, an increase in prescription revenue of 34.8%, and an increase in total revenue by 24.4% during the course of the study, compared to the previous year. Conclusions Findings from the current work demonstrate the potential of this strategy and can serve as a blueprint for statewide and national dissemination and implementation to ultimately increase access to vaccination services, increase vaccination rates, and reduce urban-rural vaccine disparities.

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“…Being located in the community and having the most frequent interaction with patients, compared with all other health professionals (21,22), pharmacists could collaborate with public health to identify and implement systems for disease surveillance and monitoring health outcomes (39). Such systems represent another research gap in this collection, but not entirely.…”

Section: More Research Neededmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacy Contributions to Improved Population Health: Expanding the Public Health Roundtable

et al. 2020

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Evaluation of Frequency of Encounters With Primary Care Physicians vs Visits to Community Pharmacies Among Medicare Beneficiaries

Cited by 113 publications

References 8 publications

Pharmacists’ Willingness to Provide Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Services and the Needs to Support COVID-19 Testing, Management, and Prevention

Pharmacists’ Willingness to Provide Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Services and the Needs to Support COVID-19 Testing, Management, and Prevention

Enrolling a rural community pharmacy as a Vaccines for Children provider to increase HPV vaccination: a feasibility study

Pharmacy Contributions to Improved Population Health: Expanding the Public Health Roundtable

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