Background: Community pharmacy is undergoing transformation with increasing pressure to build its capacity to deliver cognitive pharmaceutical services ("services"). The theoretical framework of organizational flexibility (OF) may be used to assess the capacity of community pharmacy to implement change programs and guide capacity-building initiatives.
Objective: To test the applicability of an existing scale measuring OF to the industry of community pharmacy in Australia.
Background: Community pharmacy is an industry undergoing a transformation, evolving from a traditional product supply orientation to a business capable of incorporating services. The theoretical framework of organizational flexibility is used to understand how pharmacies' capacity can be built to provide services and identify key areas needing improvement.
Objective: To determine the needs of pharmacies that were important and the elements requiring improvement when implementing and delivering services.
Objective: To identify the capacity of current pharmacy business models, and the dimensions of organisational flexibility within them, to integrate products and services as well as the perceptions of viability of these models.
Methods: Fifty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with community pharmacy owners or managers and support staff in 30 pharmacies across Australia. A framework of organisational flexibility was used to analyse their capacity to integrate services and perceptions of viability.
Background: There has been an increasing international trend toward the delivery of cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS) in community pharmacy. CPS have been developed and disseminated individually, without a framework underpinning their implementation and with limited knowledge of factors that might assist practice change. The implementation process is complex, involving a range of internal and external factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a growing trend, globally, for consumers to self-medicate with non-prescription medications for common ailments. Pharmacists and pharmacy assistants are thought to be in a unique position to support consumers' purchases of these medicines through the application of knowledge and skills, in an environment in which safety and quality remains paramount. Standards of practice have been developed by the profession to address the provision of these medicines, using a consumer-focused and risk management approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Standards of practice have been developed by the pharmacy profession to address the provision of non-prescription medicines, using a consumer-focused and risk management approach. The application of these standards in Australian community pharmacies has been monitored since 2002 by the Quality Care Pharmacy Support Centre (QCPSC).
Methods: Between September 2002 and September 2005, 7785 standards maintenance assessment visits were conducted in 4282 pharmacies, using pseudo-patient methodology.
Background: Much of the research on cognitive pharmaceutical services has focused on understanding or changing community pharmacist behaviour, with few studies focusing on the pharmacy as the unit of analysis or considering the whole profession as an organisation.
Objectives: To investigate practice change and identify facilitators of this process in community pharmacy, with specific focus on the implementation of cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS) and related programs.
Methods: Thirty-six in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with participants from 2 groups, community pharmacies and pharmacy "strategists," in Australia.
Objective: To describe Australia's community pharmacy network in the context of the health system and outline the provision of services.
Data Synthesis: The 5000 community pharmacies form a key component of the healthcare system for Australians, for whom health expenditures represent 9% of the Gross Domestic Product. A typical community pharmacy dispenses 880 prescriptions per week.
Introduction: The past decade has seen a notable shift in the practice of pharmacy, with a strong focus on the provision of cognitive pharmaceutical services (CPS) by community pharmacists. The benefits of these services have been well documented, yet their uptake appears to be slow. Various strategies have been developed to overcome barriers to the implementation of CPS, with varying degrees of success, and little is known about the sustainability of the practice changes they produce.
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