Pharmacists' preferences for providing patient-centred services

Introduction: In Canada, most pharmacists are not paid to provide patient-centred services and in other jurisdictions, most programs for these types of services have suffered from low uptake and limited sustainability. Objective: To determine pharmacists' preferences for providing patient-centred services. Methods: Senior students and pharmacists in British Columbia and Alberta were recruited to complete a questionnaire that included a discrete choice experiment. Using 18 different choice-sets, respondents were asked if they preferred to provide one of two hypothetical patient-centred services or to provide typical pharmacy services. Each service differed by the following attributes: type of service; personal income; setting; job satisfaction; professional service fee; and required continuing education. Multinomial logit and latent class regression modeling was used to determine respondents' relative preference weights for each attribute. Results: Of 539 respondents who completed the questionnaire, 49% were dispensary pharmacists or managers, 12% were dispensary owners or regional managers, 21% were clinical pharmacists and 16% were students. Respondents were very averse to seeing a decrease in their income or job satisfaction and preferred to have access to a weeklong course or a paid preceptorship. Respondents also preferred to provide medication or disease management services, but were not as interested in providing screening services. Finally, respondents had a slight preference for providing services in a clinic rather than a dispensary. Preferences differed according to several factors including respondents' employment and time in practice. Conclusion: Compared to offering only typical pharmacy services, many pharmacists seem to prefer to provide patient-centred services. However, before adopting these services, most pharmacists will need assurance that their income and job satisfaction will be maintained or increase, and that they will have access to suitable continuing education programs. Pharmacists who are attracted to clinical roles will be more interested in the type of service to be delivered. Decision-makers and pharmacy leaders who are looking to develop and implement a program for patient-centred pharmacy services should carefully consider these preferences to improve the likelihood that the program will be successful and sustainable.Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty ofGraduat