The study, published in the Oct. 2 issue, showed that a specially created program for patients with breathing-related illnesses improved their lung function only slightly. On the other hand, the effort resulted in more, not fewer, visits to emergency rooms and hospitals.
Researchers at Indiana University and Veterans Affairs hospitals conducted the research at 36 cooperating CVS community drug stores in Indianapolis.
Lead author Dr. Morris Weinberger, now Vergil N. Slee professor of health policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, and colleagues carried out a randomized, controlled trial from July 1998 to December 1999. They enrolled 1,113 people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma, divided the drug stores they patronized into three groups and assessed the patients, including their lung function, at six and again at 12 months.
Although the effort significantly boosted how satisfied patients were with their pharmacists, which was good, the modest effect on their medical conditions and quality of life was disappointing, he said.
"What we were trying to do was to figure out a way to involve community pharmacists more actively in patient care, and so in the study we provided pharmacists with patient-specific information," Weinberger said. "We also gave them tools and training on how to use that information to communicate more effectively with patients when they filled prescriptions.
"Basically, we found that pharmacists weren't able to incorporate the program into their regular practices effectively," he said.
Weinberger and his colleagues, including Drs. Michael Murray and William Tierney of the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care and Indian
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Contact: David Williamson
919-962-8596
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1-Oct-2002