Dataset Information

Good Pharmacy Practice Standardized for Community Pharmacists: The Lebanese Order of Pharmacists Initiative.

ABSTRACT: Objective:The community pharmacist's role is in constant evolution. It shifted from compounding and dispensing to patient-centered services. To guarantee that all pharmacists are providing a service of appropriate quality to every patient, the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL) took the initiative of developing good pharmacy practice (GPP) guidelines to be applied by community pharmacists for services' quality improvement. Methods:Within the OPL, a Scientific Committee, the executive authority to organize scientific and educational activities, is appointed. It decided, in January 2018, to elaborate GPP guidelines for community pharmacists and created the Community Pharmacy Practice Subcommittee, which was in charge of this project. The GPP standards suggested by the OPL were inspired by the ones published by international organizations, namely the International Pharmaceutical Federation and WHO, American, European, and regional countries. Findings:The GPP standards comprised 15 sections that tackled the following topics: settings of a pharmacy, handling of stock, extemporaneous compounding, provision of medicines, supply of nonprescription medicines, interaction and communication, documentation systems, equipment, resources, health promotion, diagnostics, pharmacotherapy monitoring, research and professional development, trainees, and para-pharmaceuticals. Conclusion:The OPL was able to implement a first draft of the GPP standards for community pharmacists in Lebanon, a developing country with many constraints. The starting project will need to be consolidated by raising awareness and changing misconception among community pharmacists as a first step. Amendments to these guidelines will follow based on the pharmacists' feedback and results of an ongoing national survey conducted by the OPL and academia.

SUBMITTER: Hallit S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6400037 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan-Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Good Pharmacy Practice Standardized for Community Pharmacists: The Lebanese Order of Pharmacists Initiative.

Hallit Souheil S Sacre Hala H Sarkis Hilda H Dalloul Nadia N Jaoude Cynthia Abou CA Nahhas Zeina Z Dagher Joya J Sili Georges G Salameh Pascale P

Journal of research in pharmacy practice 20190101 1

<h4>Objective</h4>The community pharmacist's role is in constant evolution. It shifted from compounding and dispensing to patient-centered services. To guarantee that all pharmacists are providing a service of appropriate quality to every patient, the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL) took the initiative of developing good pharmacy practice (GPP) guidelines to be applied by community pharmacists for services' quality improvement.<h4>Methods</h4>Within the OPL, a Scientific Committee, the execu ...[more]

PMID: 30911561

Similar Datasets

Project description:Objective:This study aims to assess good pharmacy practice (GPP) aspects and compare GPP scores among community pharmacies in Lebanon, using a tool developed jointly by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to improve and maintain standards of pharmacy practice. Methods:Data collection was carried out between July and October 2018 by a team of 10 licensed inspectors who work at the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists (OPL) and visited community pharmacies across Lebanon. The questionnaire was adapted to the Lebanese context and included 109 questions organized under five sections: socio-demographics, Indicator A (data management and data recording), Indicator B (services and health promotion), Indicator C (dispensing, preparation and administration of medicines), and Indicator D (storage and facilities). The value of 75% was considered as the cutoff point for adherence to indicators. Results:Out of 276 pharmacies visited, a total of 250 (90.58%) pharmacists participated in the study with one pharmacist being interviewed in every pharmacy. Results showed that 18.8% of pharmacists were generally adherents to GPP guidelines (scores above the 75% cutoff): 23.3% were adherent to indicator A, 21.6% to indicator B, 14.8% to indicator C and 13.2% to indicator D. Moreover, comparison of GPP scores across geographical regions revealed a higher adherence among community pharmacists working in the Beirut region compared to the North region, the South region, Mount Lebanon, and the Bekaa. Conclusions:Our study shows that community pharmacists in Lebanon do not fulfill GPP criteria set by FIP/WHO, and that this poor adherence is a trend across the country's geographical regions. Therefore, efforts should be made to raise awareness among pharmacists about the necessity to adhere to GPP guidelines and standards, and train them and support them appropriately to reach that goal. This is the first indicator-based comprehensive pilot assessment to evaluate GPP adherence in community pharmacies across Lebanon. Working on the optimization of this assessment tool is also warranted.

Project description:BACKGROUND:In England, since 2015, there has been a formal drive to integrate pharmacists into general practice as a new healthcare service. Research efforts have offered insights into how general practice-based professionals and patients view the service, however, they took no account of community pharmacy teams' opinions. There have been anecdotal statements about opposition from community pharmacies to the service, due to fears of losing business. The aim of the current study was to identify the experiences and perceptions of community pharmacy teams regarding pharmacists' presence in general practice. METHODS:The National Health Service Choices website was used to identify community pharmacies within a radius of two miles from eight West London general practices. The search resulted in 104 community pharmacies which were all contacted via telephone. Pharmacy staff who verbally expressed their interest to participate were then provided with the study's documents. Qualitative, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted inside the pharmacy from which each participant was recruited. Interviews lasted 30 to 45?min and were audio-recorded. Audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim and transcripts analysed thematically. RESULTS:Forty-eight community pharmacy staff participated. Four themes were discerned: awareness ("I knew that [pharmacists] have already been implemented [in general practice] but I haven't really followed it … where does the pharmacist role come?"); interactions ("I'm just so pleased that there's a pharmacist professional in the general practice … because we speak the same language!"); patient care ("if I was a patient knowing that there is a general practitioner and a pharmacist [in general practice], I would … think 'nothing can go wrong at the moment'"); and funding challenges ("if general practices take on the extra responsibility of stop smoking or flu vaccination campaigns … financially, this would affect this pharmacy"). CONCLUSIONS:The current study revealed the perceived impact of general practice-based pharmacists on community pharmacies would be improved communication between pharmacies and practices. Findings will inform policy so that any future framing of pharmacists' presence in general practice considers the needs of community pharmacies.

Project description:BackgroundCommunity pharmacies are widely distributed in the United Arab Emirates where community pharmacists' (CPs') perspectives on provision of extended community pharmacy services (ECPS) is not known. This study assessed CPs perception, practices, perceived barriers and willingness to provide ECPS.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional survey using a self-administered Likert-type questionnaire (Cronbach alpha = 0.976) was conducted among 195 community CPs in Northern emirates, selected through multistage sampling technique. The filled questionnaires were assessed for CPs' perception, practice, perceived barriers and willingness to perform ECPS. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests examined the association between demography and outcome variables (alpha value of 0.05) with further analysis using Dunn' post hoc test.ResultsOf the respondents, 71.8% (n = 140) 'strongly agreed' that every CP must provide ECPs and 39% (n = 76) 'strongly agreed' in supporting ECPS with another 44.1% (n = 86) 'agreed' on the same. The major barriers felt by CPs in practicing ECPS were lack of incentive for employee pharmacists [3 (2-3)], lack of documentation [3 (2-3)], insufficient time [3 (2-3)] and lack of patients' demand [(2-3)]; maximum score (5-5). CPs also responded 'completely' willing to provide services such as blood pressure measurement, pregnancy testing and BMI measurement. Pharmacy location influenced practice score (p = 0.008) and access to the internet had a significant effect on barriers score (p = 0.000). Availability of drug information sources impacted perception (p = 0.038), practice (p = 0.000) and willingness scores (p = 0.011).ConclusionsCPs' perception on providing ECPS was positive and they are currently offering ECPS within their available resources and facilities. Less demand from patients and lack of time were reportedly the major barriers in offering ECPS. Proper utilization of CPs in providing ECPS can complement the healthcare system with additional cost and time savings for the patients.

Dataset Information

Good Pharmacy Practice Standardized for Community Pharmacists: The Lebanese Order of Pharmacists Initiative.

Publications

Good Pharmacy Practice Standardized for Community Pharmacists: The Lebanese Order of Pharmacists Initiative.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets