Pharmacists’ Perceptions, Barriers, and Potential Solutions to Implementing a Direct Pharmacy Access Policy in Indiana

Abstract

This study assessed pharmacists’ perceptions, barriers, and potential solutions for implementing a policy allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives in Indiana. A mixed-method survey ( n = 131, 22.3% response rate), using Likert-type scales, dichotomous responses (yes/no), and open-ended questions, was distributed to pharmacy preceptors in Indiana. Pharmacists felt prescribing contraceptives would be beneficial (79.1%) and were interested in providing this service (76.0%), but only 35.6% reported having the necessary resources. Participants with a PharmD were significantly more likely to feel the service would be beneficial (odds ratio [ OR] = 10.360, 95% confidence interval [CI: 1.679, 63.939]) and be interested in prescribing contraceptives ( OR = 9.069, 95% CI [1.456, 56.485]). Reimbursement (86.4%), training courses (84.7%), private counseling rooms (69.5%), and increasing technician responsibilities (52.5%) were identified as ways to ease implementation. Women had significantly greater odds of being more comfortable than men prescribing injections ( OR = 2.237, 95% CI [1.086, 4.605]), and intravaginal rings ( OR = 2.215, 95% CI [1.066, 4.604]), when controlling for age, degree, and setting. Qualitative findings reinforced quantitative findings.

Pharmacist‐prescribed hormonal contraception services: A systematic review of implementation studies

“…49 The majority of data assessing this service focuses on uptake by pharmacies, pharmacists, and patients. Despite high levels of interest in pharmacist-prescribed contraception services among patients and pharmacists, 16,19,21,22,39,[50][51][52] only 10% to 60% of pharmacists in states allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives currently provide this service. [27][28][29][30][31][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]45,47…”

Assessing health care leadership and management for resilience and performance during crisis: The HERO-36

“…None of the survey questions were mandatory, and partial responses were possible. After collecting survey responses, we excluded hospitals with less than 20 total respondents from our analysis, leaving us with a sample of nine hospitals (four rural and five urban), 853 invited staff, and a total of 379 respondents, corresponding to a response rate of 44.4% (Supplementary Appendix 1, http://links.lww.com/HCMR/A135); this is well above the average response rate for e-mail surveys among health care personnel (e.g., Brimhall et al, 2023; Mitchell et al, 2017; Newlon et al, 2021), which is typically between 25% and 30% (Menon & Muraleedharan, 2020). Because data collection included partial survey responses, missing data were imputed using MICE.…”