Pharmacist engagement in a community pharmacy hypertension management program in collaboration with an academic medical center

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the perceptions of pharmacists and administrators who had an integral role in designing and operationalizing an integrated community pharmacist hypertension management program with collaboration between an academic medical center and a regional chain community pharmacy.

Summary: Community pharmacists (n = 3), ambulatory care pharmacists (n = 2), medical directors (n = 2), and health-system (n = 1) and pharmacy (n = 1) administrators reported positive experiences engaging with the hypertension management program. Strengths of the program included comprehensive training by the ambulatory care pharmacists, community pharmacist access to the electronic health record (EHR), and primary care providers who were receptive to referring patients and accepting recommendations from the community pharmacists. All participants felt that the program had a positive outlook and saw opportunity for expansion, such as extended hours of operation, new locations, and additional pharmacists.

Conclusion: Pharmacists are well positioned to extend hypertension management programs from primary care clinics into local pharmacies if they have appropriate training, access to the EHR, and ongoing support from collaborating primary care offices. Additional research using implementation science methods is needed to further test the scalability and replicability of the program among different patient populations, community pharmacies, and health systems.

Keywords: community pharmacy; hypertension; patient-centered medical home; perceptions; pharmacist; pharmacy.