The provision of pharmaceutical care in Denmark: a cross-sectional survey

Pharmaceutical care was a concept initially defined in the early 1990s. It had its roots within clinical pharmacy, in the USA. In Denmark, pharmaceutical care has been part of the professional standards of practice for community pharmacy since 1995.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the provision of pharmaceutical care in community practice in Denmark. A focus of the study was the estimation of the frequency of medicine-related problem identification and the process of problem management in the Danish pharmacies.

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey of all Danish community pharmacies was conducted (n = 288). The variables included: detection and identification of medicine-related problems, goal-setting for solving medicine-related problems, and documentation of efforts to solve these. The response rate was 75.7%. A non-respondent analysis was performed.

On average three medicine-related problems per pharmacy were found within the working week prior to the survey. For two-thirds of those cases the type of problem involved was identified. For the other third, goals had been set to resolve the problem. Minimal documentation of these activities was reported. The primary collaborators in problem management were general practitioners and patients.

Pharmaceutical care, in its fullest sense, as defined in policy documents in Denmark, was not evident in practice. While some aspects of pharmaceutical care were being performed, almost no documentation of efforts was taking place in community pharmacy.