Exploring the factors influencing the quality of "Health Support Pharmacy" services in Japan: Perspectives of community pharmacists.

Background: Internationally, community pharmacists play a key role in public health services. In Japan, a new system called Health Support Pharmacy (HSP) was introduced in 2016, to promote responsible self-medication with non-prescription medicines and increase awareness of public health activities provided through community pharmacies. The number of HSP services provided has been increasing; however, the service quality varies depending on pharmacies and/or pharmacists. Thus, it is important to identify factors that influence HSP service quality.

Objective: To identify factors that can impact on the quality of HSP services provided by community pharmacists in Japan.

Methods: In-depth semi-structured online interviews were conducted with twenty-four community pharmacists from across Japan. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analysed. All themes identified were deductively categorised into 3 domains using Donabedian's framework of structure, process and outcome.

Results: Participants identified 8 key themes and 23 sub-themes pertaining to the quality of pharmacy public health services. For the structure domain these were: adequate resources, professional expertise, and policy and procedures. For the process domain these were: provision of individual services, provision of community health education and other events, and collaboration with other professionals. For the outcome domain these were: impact on individuals and the general public, and impact on other professionals.

Conclusions: This study identified factors which can impact HSP service quality by community pharmacists in Japan. Whilst the major themes identified align with those reported in other studies pertaining to expanded roles for community pharmacists, this study also identified findings which appear to be unique to the Japanese context. These findings, based on Donabedian's framework, may be used to better understand the scope and quality of HSP services delivered in Japan.