Pharmaceutical care for patients with COPD in Belgium and views on protocol implementation.

Background: A protocol-based pharmaceutical care program (the PHARMACOP-protocol) focusing on patient counselling during prescription filling has shown to be effective in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, implementation of this protocol in daily practice has not yet been studied.

Objective: To describe current implementation level of the items included in the PHARMACOP-protocol in Belgian community pharmacies and to evaluate pharmacists' perspectives on the implementation of this protocol in daily practice.