Cargando…

Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada

In December 2016, pharmacists in Ontario, Canada with authorization to administer injections saw an expansion in their scope from a restriction to the influenza vaccination only to now including an additional 13 vaccine-preventable diseases, largely those related to travel. It was uncertain whether...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Houle, Sherilyn K. D., Kozlovsky, Kristina, Fernandes, Heidi V. J., Rosenberg-Yunger, Zahava
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6630201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31013879
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7020035
_version_ 1783435245946667008
author Houle, Sherilyn K. D.
Kozlovsky, Kristina
Fernandes, Heidi V. J.
Rosenberg-Yunger, Zahava
author_facet Houle, Sherilyn K. D.
Kozlovsky, Kristina
Fernandes, Heidi V. J.
Rosenberg-Yunger, Zahava
author_sort Houle, Sherilyn K. D.
collection PubMed
description In December 2016, pharmacists in Ontario, Canada with authorization to administer injections saw an expansion in their scope from a restriction to the influenza vaccination only to now including an additional 13 vaccine-preventable diseases, largely those related to travel. It was uncertain whether this change in scope would see sufficient uptake, or translate to a corresponding expansion in other travel health service offerings from community pharmacies. In October/November 2017 a survey was conducted of all licensed community pharmacists in Ontario, followed by semi-structured interviews with 6 survey respondents in June 2018. A web-based survey of members of the public from a single region of the province was also conducted in September 2018 to assess uptake of expanded vaccination services. Broad variability in uptake of these services was noted, ranging from the dispensing of travel-related medications and vaccinations only through to vaccine administration and prescribing under medical directive; however, uptake was generally at the lower end of this spectrum. This was evidenced by 94% of pharmacists reporting administering fewer than 10 travel vaccinations per month, fewer than 10% of patients reporting receiving a travel vaccine administered by a pharmacist, and a maximum of 30 pharmacies (of nearly 6000 in the province) designated to provide yellow fever vaccinations. Fewer than 1 in 3 pharmacists reported performing some form of pre-travel consultation in their practice, often limited to low-risk cases only. Barriers and facilitators reported were similar for these services as they were for other non-dispensing services, including insufficient time to integrate the service into their workload, perceived lack of knowledge and confidence in travel health, and low patient awareness of these new services available to them through community pharmacies.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6630201
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-66302012019-08-19 Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada Houle, Sherilyn K. D. Kozlovsky, Kristina Fernandes, Heidi V. J. Rosenberg-Yunger, Zahava Pharmacy (Basel) Article In December 2016, pharmacists in Ontario, Canada with authorization to administer injections saw an expansion in their scope from a restriction to the influenza vaccination only to now including an additional 13 vaccine-preventable diseases, largely those related to travel. It was uncertain whether this change in scope would see sufficient uptake, or translate to a corresponding expansion in other travel health service offerings from community pharmacies. In October/November 2017 a survey was conducted of all licensed community pharmacists in Ontario, followed by semi-structured interviews with 6 survey respondents in June 2018. A web-based survey of members of the public from a single region of the province was also conducted in September 2018 to assess uptake of expanded vaccination services. Broad variability in uptake of these services was noted, ranging from the dispensing of travel-related medications and vaccinations only through to vaccine administration and prescribing under medical directive; however, uptake was generally at the lower end of this spectrum. This was evidenced by 94% of pharmacists reporting administering fewer than 10 travel vaccinations per month, fewer than 10% of patients reporting receiving a travel vaccine administered by a pharmacist, and a maximum of 30 pharmacies (of nearly 6000 in the province) designated to provide yellow fever vaccinations. Fewer than 1 in 3 pharmacists reported performing some form of pre-travel consultation in their practice, often limited to low-risk cases only. Barriers and facilitators reported were similar for these services as they were for other non-dispensing services, including insufficient time to integrate the service into their workload, perceived lack of knowledge and confidence in travel health, and low patient awareness of these new services available to them through community pharmacies. MDPI 2019-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6630201/ /pubmed/31013879 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7020035 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Houle, Sherilyn K. D.
Kozlovsky, Kristina
Fernandes, Heidi V. J.
Rosenberg-Yunger, Zahava
Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title_full Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title_fullStr Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title_full_unstemmed Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title_short Uptake of Travel Health Services by Community Pharmacies and Patients Following Pharmacist Immunization Scope Expansion in Ontario, Canada
title_sort uptake of travel health services by community pharmacies and patients following pharmacist immunization scope expansion in ontario, canada
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6630201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31013879
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy7020035
work_keys_str_mv AT houlesherilynkd uptakeoftravelhealthservicesbycommunitypharmaciesandpatientsfollowingpharmacistimmunizationscopeexpansioninontariocanada
AT kozlovskykristina uptakeoftravelhealthservicesbycommunitypharmaciesandpatientsfollowingpharmacistimmunizationscopeexpansioninontariocanada
AT fernandesheidivj uptakeoftravelhealthservicesbycommunitypharmaciesandpatientsfollowingpharmacistimmunizationscopeexpansioninontariocanada
AT rosenbergyungerzahava uptakeoftravelhealthservicesbycommunitypharmaciesandpatientsfollowingpharmacistimmunizationscopeexpansioninontariocanada