Prevalence of compounding in independent community pharmacy practice

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the extent of prescription compounding in independent community pharmacies and identify factors that influence the decision of independent pharmacists whether to provide compounding services.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa.

Participants: 370 pharmacists in charge.

Intervention: Anonymous questionnaire mailed in January 2005.

Main outcome measures: Percentage of pharmacies that provide compounding; percentage of dispensed prescriptions that require compounding; factors contributing to decisions whether to provide compounding service.

Results: Overall, 94% of respondent pharmacies provided compounding services at the time of this survey. Prescriptions that required compounding represented less than 1% of total prescriptions for the majority (58.3%) of respondents. The main reasons for the decision to provide compounding service were wanting to provide full pharmaceutical care to patients (73.8% of compounders) and responding to requests by prescribers (48.7%). Pharmacies that did not provide compounding service cited the main reason as not receiving prescriptions that required compounding (63.6% of noncompounders).

Conclusion: Compounding remains a component of pharmacy practice in the independent community setting. Prescriptions that required compounding represented 2.3% of all prescriptions dispensed by compounding pharmacies.