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A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan

Managing medicine shortages consumes ample time of pharmacists worldwide. This study aimed to explore the strategies and resources being utilized by community pharmacists to tackle a typical shortage problem. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted. A total of 31 community pharmacists fro...

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Autores principales: Omer, Sumaira, Ali, Salamat, Shukar, Sundus, Gillani, Ali Hassan, Fang, Yu, Yang, Caijun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682409
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010665
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author Omer, Sumaira
Ali, Salamat
Shukar, Sundus
Gillani, Ali Hassan
Fang, Yu
Yang, Caijun
author_facet Omer, Sumaira
Ali, Salamat
Shukar, Sundus
Gillani, Ali Hassan
Fang, Yu
Yang, Caijun
author_sort Omer, Sumaira
collection PubMed
description Managing medicine shortages consumes ample time of pharmacists worldwide. This study aimed to explore the strategies and resources being utilized by community pharmacists to tackle a typical shortage problem. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted. A total of 31 community pharmacists from three cities (Lahore, Multan, and Dera Ghazi Khan) in Pakistan were sampled, using a purposive approach. All interviews were audio taped, transcribed verbatim, and subjected to thematic analysis. The analysis yielded five broad themes and eighteen subthemes. The themes highlighted (1) the current scenarios of medicine shortages in a community setting, (2) barriers encountered during the shortage management, (3) impacts, (4) corrective actions performed for handling shortages and (4) future interventions. Participants reported that medicine shortages were frequent. Unethical activities such as black marketing, stockpiling, bias distribution and bulk purchasing were the main barriers. With respect to managing shortages, maintaining inventories was the most common proactive approach, while the recommendation of alternative drugs to patients was the most common counteractive approach. Based on the findings, management strategies for current shortages in community pharmacies are insufficient. Shortages would continue unless potential barriers are addressed through proper monitoring of the sale and consumption of drugs, fair distribution, early communication, and collaboration.
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spelling pubmed-85358062021-10-23 A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan Omer, Sumaira Ali, Salamat Shukar, Sundus Gillani, Ali Hassan Fang, Yu Yang, Caijun Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Managing medicine shortages consumes ample time of pharmacists worldwide. This study aimed to explore the strategies and resources being utilized by community pharmacists to tackle a typical shortage problem. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were conducted. A total of 31 community pharmacists from three cities (Lahore, Multan, and Dera Ghazi Khan) in Pakistan were sampled, using a purposive approach. All interviews were audio taped, transcribed verbatim, and subjected to thematic analysis. The analysis yielded five broad themes and eighteen subthemes. The themes highlighted (1) the current scenarios of medicine shortages in a community setting, (2) barriers encountered during the shortage management, (3) impacts, (4) corrective actions performed for handling shortages and (4) future interventions. Participants reported that medicine shortages were frequent. Unethical activities such as black marketing, stockpiling, bias distribution and bulk purchasing were the main barriers. With respect to managing shortages, maintaining inventories was the most common proactive approach, while the recommendation of alternative drugs to patients was the most common counteractive approach. Based on the findings, management strategies for current shortages in community pharmacies are insufficient. Shortages would continue unless potential barriers are addressed through proper monitoring of the sale and consumption of drugs, fair distribution, early communication, and collaboration. MDPI 2021-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8535806/ /pubmed/34682409 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010665 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Omer, Sumaira
Ali, Salamat
Shukar, Sundus
Gillani, Ali Hassan
Fang, Yu
Yang, Caijun
A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title_full A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title_fullStr A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title_short A Qualitative Study Exploring the Management of Medicine Shortages in the Community Pharmacy of Pakistan
title_sort qualitative study exploring the management of medicine shortages in the community pharmacy of pakistan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535806/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34682409
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010665
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