Evaluation of Consultation in Community Pharmacies with Mystery Shoppers

2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1023-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dietrich Alte ◽  
Werner Weitschies ◽  
Christoph A Ritter
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
Pharmacy Staff ◽  
Interaction Detection ◽  
Size Number ◽  
Interaction Variables ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction ◽  
Mystery Shoppers ◽  
Northeastern Germany

BACKGROUND: Consultation of patients in community pharmacies (CPs) must meet standards, especially in selling over-the-counter drugs; however, there has been no information as to whether northeastern German CPs meet these standards. OBJECTIVE: To estimate aspects of consultation quality in CPs in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, located in northeastern Germany, study factors related to consultation quality, and check compliance with Pharmacy Practice Law, because not all pharmaceutical professions may legally sell drugs. METHODS: In 2005, 6 mystery shoppers (pharmacy students) presented with a headache to 146 of 398 CPs; they requested a sleeping pill plus an antihistaminic drug and completed data collection forms. Consultation scores were calculated and effects of pharmacy/staff characteristics on consultation were modeled with linear (consultation score) and logistic regression (failure to detect a drug—drug interaction). Variables used in models were staff profession, pharmacy size (number of staff), city/town size (number of pharmacies), and day of the week in which shoppers visited the pharmacy. RESULTS: Despite a high willingness of pharmacy staff to provide consultation (83% spontaneously offered advice), northeastern German CPs did not achieve their professional mission. Extreme variation was evident in their questioning of the mystery shoppers regarding use of important single items (from 1% for pregnancy/breast-feeding considerations to 56% for dosing instructions). In all cases, drugs were sold to the shoppers; most (91%) were single agents. Drug—drug interaction detection was low: 43 (30%) counselors informed mystery shoppers about the interaction. The profession of the consulting staff and the size of the pharmacy were associated with consultation quality (highest for pharmacists; lowest for small pharmacies [2–4 staff]). For interaction detection, consulting staff profession was relevant: pharmacists had OR of 3.2 for the detection compared with pharmacy engineers/assistants. In 7 pharmacies, staff illegally sold drugs to customers. CONCLUSIONS: Northeastern German CPs have much need and potential for improvement in consultation quality and drug—drug interaction detection. In-depth elicitation of symptoms and details of patients' situations must be improved. Relevant training should be provided, including use of software to identify drug interactions. Mystery shopper studies give valuable information for tailoring training schemes.

scholarly journals I could take the judgment if you could just provide the service: non-prescription syringe purchase experience at Arizona pharmacies, 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth E. Meyerson ◽  
Carrie A. Lawrence ◽  
Summer Dawn Cope ◽  
Steven Levin ◽  
Christopher Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Health Risk Behaviors ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
Pharmacy Staff ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Injection Drugs ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Health Response ◽  
The Usa

Abstract Background Community pharmacies are important for health access by rural populations and those who do not have optimum access to the health system, because they provide myriad health services and are found in most communities. This includes the sale of non-prescription syringes, a practice that is legal in the USA in all but two states. However, people who inject drugs (PWID) face significant barriers accessing sterile syringes, particularly in states without laws allowing syringe services programming. To our knowledge, no recent studies of pharmacy-based syringe purchase experience have been conducted in communities that are both rural and urban, and none in the Southwestern US. This study seeks to understand the experience of retail pharmacy syringe purchase in Arizona by PWID. Methods An interview study was conducted between August and December 2018 with 37 people living in 3 rural and 2 urban Arizona counties who identified as current or former users of injection drugs. Coding was both a priori and emergent, focusing on syringe access through pharmacies, pharmacy experiences generally, experiences of stigma, and recommendations for harm reduction services delivered by pharmacies. Results All participants reported being refused syringe purchase at pharmacies. Six themes emerged about syringe purchase: (1) experience of stigma and judgment by pharmacy staff, (2) feelings of internalized stigma, (3) inconsistent sales outcomes at the same pharmacy or pharmacy chain, (4) pharmacies as last resort for syringes, (5) fear of arrest for syringe possession, and (6) health risks resulting from syringe refusal. Conclusions Non-prescription syringe sales in community pharmacies are a missed opportunity to improve the health of PWID by reducing syringe sharing and reuse. Yet, current pharmacy syringe sales refusal and stigmatization by staff suggest that pharmacy-level interventions will be necessary to impact pharmacy practice. Lack of access to sterile syringes reinforces health risk behaviors among PWID. Retail syringe sales at pharmacies remain an important, yet barrier-laden, element of a comprehensive public health response to reduce HIV and hepatitis C among PWID. Future studies should test multilevel evidence-based interventions to decrease staff discrimination and stigma and increase syringe sales.

Comparison of eight screening tools to detect interactions between herbal supplements and oncology agents

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1843-1849
Author(s):  
Faisal Shakeel ◽  
Fang Fang ◽  
Kelley M Kidwell ◽  
Lauren A Marcath ◽  
Daniel L Hertz
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Positive Predictive Value ◽  
Drug Interactions ◽  
Predictive Value ◽  
Screening Tools ◽  
Herbal Supplements ◽  
Interaction Detection ◽  
Natural Medicine ◽  
Interaction Screening ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction

Introduction Patients with cancer are increasingly using herbal supplements, unaware that supplements can interact with oncology treatment. Herb–drug interaction management is critical to ensure optimal treatment outcomes. Several screening tools exist to detect drug–drug interactions, but their performance to detect herb–drug interactions is not known. This study compared the performance of eight drug–drug interaction screening tools to detect herb–drug interaction with anti-cancer agents. Methods The herb–drug interaction detection performance of four subscription (Micromedex, Lexicomp, PEPID, Facts & Comparisons) and free (Drugs.com, Medscape, WebMD, RxList) drug–drug interaction tools was assessed. Clinical relevance of each herb–drug interaction was determined using Natural Medicine and each drug–drug interaction tool. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. Linear regression was used to compare performance between subscription and free tools. Results All tools had poor sensitivity (<0.20) for detecting herb–drug interaction. Lexicomp had the highest positive predictive value (0.98) and best overall performance score (0.54), while Medscape was the best performing free tool (0.52). The worst subscription tools were as good as or better than the best free tools, and as a group subscription tools outperformed free tools on all metrics. Using an average subscription tool would detect one additional herb–drug interaction for every 10 herb–drug interactions screened by a free tool. Conclusion Lexicomp is the best available tool for screening herb–drug interaction, and Medscape is the best free alternative; however, the sensitivity and performance for detecting herb–drug interaction was far lower than for drug–drug interactions, and overall quite poor. Further research is needed to improve herb–drug interaction screening performance.

scholarly journals Analysis of overridden alerts in a drug-drug interaction detection system

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 400-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Mille ◽  
C. Schwartz ◽  
F. Brion ◽  
J.-E. Fontan ◽  
O. Bourdon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Interaction Detection ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction

scholarly journals Structure-Based Drug-Drug Interaction Detection via Expressive Graph Convolutional Networks and Deep Sets (Student Abstract)

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 13927-13928
Author(s):  
Mengying Sun ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Olivier Elemento ◽  
Jiayu Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Detection Method ◽  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Convolutional Networks ◽  
Interaction Detection ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction

In this work, we proposed a DDI detection method based on molecular structures using graph convolutional networks and deep sets. We proposed a more discriminative convolutional layer compared to conventional GCN and achieved permutation invariant prediction without losing the capability of capturing complicated interactions.

scholarly journals Determinants of potential drug–drug interaction associated dispensing in community pharmacies in the Netherlands

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthijs L. Becker ◽  
Peter W. J. Caspers ◽  
Marjon Kallewaard ◽  
Riekert J. Bruinink ◽  
Nico B. Kylstra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
Potential Drug ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction

Potential Determinants of Drug-Drug Interaction Associated Dispensing in Community Pharmacies

Drug Safety ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 371-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthijs L Becker ◽  
Marjon Kallewaard ◽  
Peter W J Caspers ◽  
Tom Schalekamp ◽  
Bruno H C Stricker
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
Drug Drug Interaction
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