Price matching impacts dispensing
PHARMACISTS working at stores that focus on price as their key point of difference are more likely to breach dispensing protocols when dealing with requests for emergency contraceptives, research reveals.
Health economists from the Queensland University of Technology reported that secret shoppers who visited 243 pharmacies in Brisbane found pharmacists working for banner groups had a higher rate of compliance with dispensing guidelines for emergency contraceptives and conjunctivitis than those working in other stores.
The researchers found 57.6% of pharmacists complied with dispensing guidelines, when providing emergency hormonal contraceptives and over-thecounter conjunctivitis treatments.
Secret shoppers were engaged as part of the study and given set scripts to use when seeking emergency contraception, with one group seeking the medicine within 24 hours of engaging in unprotected sex, while a second group was to report having unprotected sex more than
72 hours prior to seeking an emergency contraceptive.
The study found that pharmacy staff followed guidelines in the first instance, however, almost half of pharmacists provided emergency contraceptives in the second scenario, despite guidelines recommending that pharmacists should not dispense it, but refer the patient to their GP.
The authors suggested that pharmacists may be “influenced by information transfers in social interactions and by the psychology and emotional state of others”, quoting a secret shopper who had reported being in the second group.
“The pharmacist was initially not going to supply it, because of the time elapsed, however, after I said I didn’t mind, whatever they recommended they then sold it to me because it was a Friday and she was worried I wouldn’t be able to get to the GP,” the shopper said.
When it came to providing OTC conjunctivitis treatments, pharmacists were more likely to comply with guidelines when the first in-store interaction with the patient was with them, rather than with a pharmacy assistant, the researchers found.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open.