Optimizing work in community pharmacy: What preferences do community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have for a better allocation of daily activities?

Abstract

Objective

Pharmacy work encompasses two main streams. These are logistic flow (the supply and distribution of healthcare products) and pharmaceutical flow (the dispensing and provision of pharmacy services). The pharmaceutical flow has increased significantly with the introduction of reimbursed services such as Rapid Diagnostic Tests, chronic disease screening, minor ailment prescriptions, vaccine prescription and administration, and medication reviews. The implementation of new pharmacy services requires efficiency. The main objective of the survey presented here was to determine the preferences of community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in relation to the assignment of tasks within the community pharmacy team.

Method

The survey, which used the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) method, presented 13 daily pharmacy activities to community pharmacists (CPs) and pharmacy technicians (PTs). Descriptive statistics and Bayesian logistic regression were used to analyse the data.

Key findings

The results indicate that medication dispensing is a shared activity between CPs and PTs, for which the latter already have partial autonomy. Management of nursing home orders and supplies tends to be assigned to pharmacy technicians, whereas clinical pharmacy services such as prescription renewal, medication reviews, and counselling are considered to be more within the CPs' domain. CPs would readily delegate tasks like screening procedures to PTs. PTs express interest in minor ailment prescribing, a responsibility CPs are not yet ready to entrust to them.

Conclusions

Delegating logistical activities to pharmacy technicians could enable community pharmacists to focus on specialized pharmaceutical care, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of the services offered to patients. However, the reorganization of tasks should not only be implemented from a logistical standpoint since pharmacy technicians also share an interest in pharmaceutical care.