Planning for ambulatory pharmacy services

To aid in the planning of patient-oriented pharmacy services in an ambulatory care center, the demographic profile of the patients visiting the pharmacist at the Sunol Health Center (SHC) pharmacy in Los Angeles, California was studied. Analysis of the data collected over a 6-month period revealed that female patient visits were double the number of male patient visits. Ten disease conditions requiring drug therapy accounted for 75% of all problems presented by the patients. The mean number of prescribed medications received per patient was 1.7. The ratio of newly prescribed medications versus refill medications was 2.5 to1 or 70% versus 30%. The proportion of new patient visits versus return patient visits was 55% versus 45%. With this information, the training of the pharmacist and the services of a pharmacy may be designed specifically to meet the needs of the patients in the community or the ambulatory care setting.