Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Sep 6;17(1):2395551.
doi: 10.1080/20523211.2024.2395551. eCollection 2024.

Community pharmacy & primary care integration: qualitative study on stakeholders' opinions and interventions

Amaia Urionagüena  1 , Celia Piquer-Martinez  2 , Shalom Isaac Benrimoj  1   2 , Begoña Calvo  1 , Victoria Garcia-Cardenas  3 , Fernando Martinez-Martinez  2 , Miguel Angel Gastelurrutia  1   2
Affiliations

Community pharmacy & primary care integration: qualitative study on stakeholders' opinions and interventions

Amaia Urionagüena et al. J Pharm Policy Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Health systems worldwide are under pressure. Integration seems a possible solution to improve healthcare systems efficiency. This research aims to gather stakeholders' opinions on integrating community pharmacy and the primary healthcare system and secondly to explore and prioritise interventions for an initial integration plan.

Method: Using a constructivist qualitative research approach, a two-phase qualitative study was conducted in the Basque Country, Spain. Thematic analysis using NVivo® was undertaken on data gathered during focus groups and semi-structured interviews (phase 1). During phase 2, a nominal group prioritised potential integration interventions identified in phase 1.

Results: The study amalgamated findings from four focus groups and nine interviews, revealing six themes. Stakeholders had a diverse understanding of integration, associating the term mainly with collaboration, communication or cooperation. Community pharmacies were positively perceived; however, their commercial and privately owned nature was of concern. Remuneration methods for pharmacists were controversial, with a suggested shift to service-based remuneration. Information availability and barriers such as interprofessional communication gaps were highlighted. The nominal group prioritised, according to importance and feasibility, bidirectional communication development, coordination in using interprofessional protocols and community pharmacist participation in primary healthcare centre meetings as interventions for integrating community pharmacies and primary healthcare centres.

Conclusion: Based on the opinions of stakeholders, three interventions are proposed to initiate the integration process of community pharmacy and primary care. The implementation of these interventions will need to be negotiated with the relevant authorities and evaluated.

Keywords: Healthcare system; community pharmacy; health policy; integration; primary health care; qualitative research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Priority matrix for interventions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Allsop, D. B., Chelladurai, J. M., Kimball, E. R., Marks, L. D., & Hendricks, J. J. (2022). Qualitative methods with Nvivo software: A practical guide for analyzing qualitative data. Psych, 4(2), 142–159. 10.3390/psych4020013 - DOI
    1. Amin, M. E. K., Norgaard, L. S., Cavaco, A. M., Witry, M. J., Hillman, L., Cernasev, A., & Desselle, S. P. (2020). Establishing trustworthiness and authenticity in qualitative pharmacy research. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16(10), 1472–1482. 10.1016/j.sapharm.2020.02.005 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Armitage, G. D., Suter, E., Oelke, N. D., & Adair, C. E. (2009). Health systems integration: State of the evidence. International Journal of Integrated Care, 9(2), Article 82. 10.5334/ijic.316 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Babiker, A., El Husseini, M., Al Nemri, A., Al Frayh, A., Al Juryyan, N., Faki, M. O., Assiri, A., Al Saadi, M., Shaikh, F., & Al Zamil, F. (2014). Health care professional development: Working as a team to improve patient care. Sudanese Journal of Paediatrics, 14(2), 9–16. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bardet, J. D., Vo, T. H., Bedouch, P., & Allenet, B. (2015). Physicians and community pharmacists collaboration in primary care: A review of specific models. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 11(5), 602–622. 10.1016/j.sapharm.2014.12.003 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources