The potential role for a pharmacist in a multidisciplinary general practitioner super clinic

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Pharmacy Practice
• General Practice

Background:

• Australian General Practitioner (GP) super clinics aim to deliver integrated, multidisciplinary, patient-centred chronic disease care.
• Research on the current and potential roles of pharmacists within these super clinics is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the perspectives of General Practitioner (GP) super clinic staff regarding current and future pharmacist-led services.
• To identify opportunities for optimizing pharmacist contributions to multidisciplinary care models.

Main Methods:

• Semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively sampled staff (n=9) from a General Practitioner (GP) super clinic in a semi-rural New South Wales location.
• Thematic analysis was used to analyze interview data until theme saturation was achieved.

Main Results:

• Three themes emerged: staff working relationships, the pharmacist's current role, and potential future roles.
• Existing pharmacist roles (home medicines reviews, drug information) were supported but require expansion through formalised collaboration.
• Potential new roles include medication use auditing, record optimization, specialized drug information, dispensing, and prescribing, with GPs noting potential benefits for consultation efficiency.

Conclusions:

• Pharmacist services can be better leveraged within the General Practitioner (GP) super clinic model to address existing gaps in semi-rural settings.
• Future pharmacist roles should be strategically integrated into a formalized healthcare team approach, considering funding and legislative frameworks.