How Many Pharmacists Are in Our Future? The Bureau of Health Professions Projects Supply to 2020

Gershon, Sharon K.; Cultice, James M.; Knapp, Katherine K.

doi:10.1016/s1086-5802(16)31122-6

Cited by 23 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A related concern is that staffing shortages, overwork, and job stress may further contribute to increased medication errors. 20,21 This study found that the need for prescription clarification contacts varies considerably based on the incoming delivery channel of the new prescription order, and the subgroup that included electronic channels demonstrated significantly less need for clarification. In this context, electronic prescribing may provide a means to reduce the inefficiencies associated with the current prescription ordering and fulfillment processes.…”

Section: This Prescription Is An Example Of Those Requiring Clarificamentioning

confidence: 89%

Mail-Order Prescriptions Requiring Clarification Contact With the Prescriber: Prevalence, Reasons, and Implications

Feifer

Nevins²,

McGuigan³

et al. 2003

JMCP

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BACKGROUND: Prescription review by pharmacists prior to dispensing is an important step in an overall strategy for preventing medication errors. Contacts with prescribers may be required to clarify missing, unclear, or inconsistent information. While essential to reduce the likelihood of potential patient harm, clarification contacts are time-consuming for pharmacists and prescribers. The scope of the issue and the factors that contribute to it are not well understood.OBJECTIVE: To quantify the frequency of contacts with prescribers that were necessary to obtain clarification of prescriptions and to identify the factors that made these prescriber contacts necessary.METHODS: An analysis was conducted involving new prescriptions received by a national mail-order pharmacy that required clarification contacts with prescribers for quality reasons (i.e., those potentially impacting the accuracy of dispensing). Excluding refills and renewals, the percentage of new prescriptions requiring clarification contacts was calculated and categorized by incoming delivery channel (mail, fax, telephone, etc.). The quality problems that prompted these contacts were categorized according to the problem identified.RESULTS: Among the total of 295,378 new prescription orders received during the 1-week study period (from April 7 to April 13, 2002), 8.7% contained quality problems that necessitated clarification contact with prescribers. Prescriptions received by fax transmission and mail were most likely to require clarification as compared with direct telephone conversation and miscellaneous (including electronic) channels. Among prescriptions that required a clarification contact for quality problems, an average of 2.4 problems per prescription was observed. The most common problems were: directions unclear or missing (24.3%); refill quantity unclear, missing, or incorrect (24.3%); dosage unclear (20.2%); drug name or strength unclear (13.2%); missing physician or patient data (11.4%); and missing prescriber signature (3.2%).CONCLUSION: Prescriber clarification contacts are frequently needed to reduce the potential for medication error in the current prescription fulfillment process. While these contacts are necessary to clarify data elements essential to accurate medication dispensing, they are time-and resource-intensive. These study results suggest that alternate prescription order channels, including electronic, could reduce the sizable burden of prescription order clarification in mail-order pharmacy.

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Section: This Prescription Is An Example Of Those Requiring Clarificamentioning

confidence: 89%

Mail-Order Prescriptions Requiring Clarification Contact With the Prescriber: Prevalence, Reasons, and Implications

Feifer

Nevins²,

McGuigan³

et al. 2003

JMCP

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“…In the United States, there are an estimated 220,000 licensed pharmacists. 7 Since its inception, approximately 40,000 pharmacists and student pharmacists have been trained through the APhA Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery program. 8 Notwithstanding this important achievement, this is only a fraction of the licensed pharmacists and pharmacy students in the United States, indicating that this voluntary program is underutilized considerably.…”

Section: Pharmacists' Involvement In Immunizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deficiencies in Immunization Education and Training in Pharmacy Schools: A Call to Action

Bain¹,

Cullison²

2009

Am J Pharm Educ

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Approximately 38% of US pharmacy schools provide immunization education and training to pharmacy students as part of their core curricula. These deficiencies in immunization education and training may contribute to low immunization rates for some groups of people, particularly hard-to-reach consumers and those with misconceptions about vaccinations. In this paper, we call upon all pharmacy schools to mandate immunization education and training as part of their core curricula, not just as an elective course. In doing so, we encourage pharmacy schools to adopt the Pharmacy-Based Immunization Delivery program developed by the American Pharmacists Association. We recognize that implementation of these recommendations will require sufficient resources and that it will take time to change the curricula in colleges and schools of pharmacy.

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“…By the 1990s, this view was clearly being replaced: It was estimated that in 2020, we would be short 157,000 pharmacists based on professionally determined needs and other variables related to technology-induced practice changes and numbers of pharmacists anticipated to graduate from our colleges and schools of pharmacy. 2 Hospital pharmacies are taking longer to fill open positions, often have a 5-20% vacancy rate for those spots, and sometimes have to settle for less than the skill sets wanted. Clearly threatening to the mission of pharmacy departments is the removal of positions or the inability to add positions during budgeting cycles because previous positions are still open.…”

Section: Opportunities With Our Pharmacy Departmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing schools would have to demonstrate full capacity, as measured by a set of criteria, before a new school of pharmacy in the state could be approved. As practicing pharmacists, this expansion of existing schools' class size and new schools may be a triple-edged sword, if there is such a thing: (1) we are happy for the expansion because we need more pharmacists, (2) we are worried about the expansion because we are not sure if there are enough qualified faculty to teach, and (3) we are challenged by the expansion to help the schools find additional teaching sites at our facilities.…”

Section: Opportunities In Local and State Organizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the pharmacy enterprise: Leadership needed

Ivey¹

2009

American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy

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How Many Pharmacists Are in Our Future? The Bureau of Health Professions Projects Supply to 2020

Cited by 23 publications

References 8 publications

Mail-Order Prescriptions Requiring Clarification Contact With the Prescriber: Prevalence, Reasons, and Implications

Mail-Order Prescriptions Requiring Clarification Contact With the Prescriber: Prevalence, Reasons, and Implications

Deficiencies in Immunization Education and Training in Pharmacy Schools: A Call to Action

Expanding the pharmacy enterprise: Leadership needed

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