Improving Patient-Pharmacist Encounters with Over-The-Counter Medications: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study.

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Pharmacy Practice
• Medication Safety Interventions
• Community Pharmacy Operations

Background:

• Over-the-counter (OTC) medication use poses increased safety risks for adults over 65.
• Community pharmacy layouts can hinder pharmacist assistance with OTC decisions for older adults.
• The Senior Section is an innovative pharmacy redesign to improve staff-patient interaction for OTC medication selection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of the Senior Section on the frequency and content of OTC encounters between pharmacy staff and patients.
• To assess if the Senior Section design improves safe medication selection and use among older adults.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods design utilizing patient OTC encounter data and staff interviews.
• NVivo software for coding interview transcripts.
• Pre-post intervention comparisons using frequency and chi-square analyses of OTC encounter variables.

Main Results:

• Pharmacy staff were more likely to initiate encounters and discuss more topics, including OTC product appropriateness and medication classes.
• Staff spent less time away from the prescription department and had fewer prolonged or location-based encounters.
• The Senior Section implementation did not negatively impact overall pharmacy workflow.

Conclusions:

• The Senior Section facilitates more frequent, effective, and efficient pharmacy staff-patient engagements.
• This redesigned space has the potential to significantly reduce over-the-counter medication-related harms in older adults.