Traditionally, health sentinel networks have focused on the reporting of data by primary care physicians and hospitals, ignoring the role of the community pharmacist as an expert in drugs. The objective of this study was to describe a method for creating a network of sentinel pharmacies in a region of Southern Europe in order to have a pharmaceutical surveillance system that is representative of the territory to be monitored and that can respond to any events or incidents that can be followed up by the community pharmacy. The creation process was carried out in three phases: a first phase of selection through a cluster and population analysis and a final adjustment, a second phase of voluntariness and random selection, and a third phase of training and implementation of the network. A sentinel network of 75 community pharmacies has been established in Catalonia. The network monitors 2.47% of the total population with a homogeneous proportion of urban (42), rural (30), and mountain-area (3) pharmacies based on the particular characteristics of the territory. This model allows increased surveillance in the territory, objectively and representatively detects problems arising from the use of medicines, and establishes improvement strategies of public health.
Keywords: community health; community pharmacies; health services administration; pharmacies sentinel network; pharmacist intervention; pharmacy; public health.