Provision of Clinical Preventive Services by Community Pharmacists

Abstract

Community pharmacists are highly accessible health care professionals, providing opportunities for partnerships with other health care and public health professionals to expand the population's access to clinical preventive services. To document examples of the community pharmacist's role in providing clinical preventive services to the general population, we conducted PubMed searches using the key word "community pharmacy" and key words from the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations rated A or B. We present 4 descriptive summaries of clinical preventive services that can be offered by community pharmacists. Community pharmacists can provide clinical preventive services such as providing education, conducting screenings, and making referrals to improve population health.

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Determination of US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations to review with regard to provision of clinical preventive services by community pharmacists. The US Preventive Services Task Force states that recommendations with a C rating be offered or provided to selected patients based on individual circumstances, D-rated recommendations should be discouraged, and I-rated recommendations have insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms for the service.