Half of Patients Report Being Satisfied With Community Pharmacy Care
However, investigators find many gaps remaining in care for patients in relation to race, ethnicity, and disabilities.
In a survey of patients who receive care from a pharmacy, approximately half were satisfied with the care they received. They acknowledged that a gap remains in how pharmacy staff addresses drug therapies in relation to race, ethnicity, and disabilities, according to research from the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy and published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.1,2
However, investigators find many gaps remaining in care for patients in relation to race, ethnicity, and disabilities. | Image Credit: lubero - stock.adobe.com
"We like to say that pharmacy is really the last line of defense for the patient,” Brittany Melton, PhD, professor and interim chair of pharmacy practice at the KU School of Pharmacy, said in a news release.2 “They may have had an interaction with a physician and not asked all of their questions—because of timing or because of a language barrier. It’s the pharmacy’s responsibility to make sure that prescription is safe and appropriate for the patient, but also to communicate clearly. If you give a patient a prescription and they don’t understand why they need to take it or how they should take it, it may not benefit them—it may actually harm them.”
Pharmacies are an important care team for patients with disabilities, as some patients might need multiple medications to treat a medical condition. According to a review published in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, patients with disabilities “encounter impediments to health-care access, especially in poor and middle-income nations, which widen the gap in access for people with disabilities between the developing and developed world.”3
The authors stated that, because of their accessibility, community pharmacies are often the first point of contact for patients, although they are not always accessible to people with disabilities. Therefore, recognizing the barriers to access and implementing improvements can help patients with disabilities and improve their care.3
In the current study, investigators aimed to determine the patient perspective of community pharmacies, specifically pertaining to culturally responsive care and ethnically diverse care for patients with disabilities in the United States. Patients included were over 18 years old and were recruited by Qualtrics for an anonymous online survey from August 7 to August 14, 2024. The survey included demographic information, frequency of pharmacy encounters, perception of quality care based on their identities, barriers to medication access, and suggestions to improve various pharmacy services.1
Patients were divided into 3 demographics, including white/nonHispanic without disabilities, ethnically diverse without disabilities, and ethnically diverse with disabilities.2
“We really were looking at patients who had gone into the pharmacy, had gotten prescriptions, and had at least some sort of interaction with pharmacy staff, rather than those who are perfectly healthy and never go into the pharmacy,” Melton said in the news release.2 “In looking at them across the groups, for the most part people were fairly satisfied with their pharmacy interactions.”
There was a total of 1218 patients included in the survey, with 200 identifying as white, 518 being ethnically diverse with a disability, and 500 being ethnically diverse without a disability. In all cohorts, over 50% of patients were satisfied with the quality of care provided by pharmacy staff. Barriers for patients with disabilities included communication, specifically for patients with hearing impairments, and limited physical space for patients in wheelchairs.1
“I think there's still a lot that we can do to look at pharmacy and pharmacy technicians, pharmacists—their perceptions of providing care for patients with certain disabilities and with different ethnic backgrounds,” Melton said in the news release.2 “One of the comments that came up frequently was participants weren’t sure if the pharmacy staff felt comfortable with people of different ethnic backgrounds—and they may not have engaged with the pharmacy staff as thoroughly because of that difference in ethnic background.”
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