Barriers to medication counseling in a rural community telepharmacy setting

Introduction:

Telepharmacy provides an option for delivery of pharmacy services in rural areas that would not otherwise support a pharmacist. Pharmacy best practices and state pharmacy law dictate that medication counseling be provided with all new prescriptions filled in the community telepharmacy.  In our rural setting,  medication counseling is offered, but the rate of acceptance of counseling is low.

Objectives:

To examine perceived barriers to medication counseling identified from patients, technicians, and pharmacists in the rural community telepharmacy setting.

Study Design:

A structured interview guide was developed and determined to be exempt by our IRB. Barriers to medication counseling may be multifactorial and may include a lack of awareness of the service, having been told about a medication by another healthcare professional, perceived difficulty or length of time required to receive counseling, lack of value for the service, technical factors with telecommunication, workflow issues, concerns about privacy, or other reasons. The survey included questions regarding these barriers.

Methods:

Pharmacy technicians and patients at the remote sites will be surveyed to gain a better understanding of potential reasons for low rates of medication counseling.  Data will be compiled and grouped into thematic area for describing barriers.

Results:

Five of six pharmacy technicians have been interviewed. Patient surveys will be distributed in January and February for reporting at the Virtual Poster session in May. Initial results suggest that perceived length of time required for medication counseling is the most common barrier cited, per the technician interviews.  Patient surveys will further elucidate reasons for low rates of counseling.

Conclusions:

Understanding the most common reasons for low rates of medication counseling in a rural community telepharmacy setting will allow the pharmacy staff to make operational changes that may result in more consistently accepted services.