It Is a Good Idea, but Are They Willing? Assessing Pharmacist Willingness to Deliver Colorectal Cancer Screening

Accessibility, expanding scope of practice, and a rapidly changing policy landscape make US community pharmacies a promising delivery setting for colorectal cancer screening. It is not clear, however, whether community pharmacists are willing to incorporate colorectal cancer screening into their pharmacy practice, what potential drivers of willingness are, and, if unwilling, under what conditions pharmacists would be willing to provide PharmFIT.

From September 2022 to January 2023, we surveyed 578 currently practicing community pharmacists. We assessed willingness to provide a pharmacy-based colorectal cancer screening program (PharmFIT). We used multiple linear regression to identify correlates of perceived implementation complexity and multiple logistic regression to explore overall willingness to implement PharmFIT.

Most pharmacists (80%) were willing to implement PharmFIT. The most common reasons for unwillingness were that results needed to be reported to the patients' primary care providers (52%), that appropriate training in delivering colorectal cancer screening be provided (48%), and that care coordination with primary care providers be clear (46%). Perceived complexity of the intervention decreased as years in practice increased [β = 0.013; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01-0.02] and as the level of knowledge about colorectal cancer screening increased (β = 0.085; 95% CI, 0.01-0.16). Respondents' willingness to implement PharmFIT increased as perceived complexity decreased (OR = 5.68; 95% CI, 3.96-8.15).

Most community pharmacists in the United States would be willing to integrate PharmFIT into their current workflows. Training in how to deliver fecal immunochemical testing and preparation for the coordination of test results and follow-up care should be completed prior to implementing PharmFIT.

Community pharmacies are a viable venue for delivering colorectal cancer screening.