Providing emergency contraceptive pills "behind-the-counter": opinions among Minnesota healthcare providers.
We assessed strategies to increase access to emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) among healthcare providers in Minnesota. We hypothesized that physicians, mid-level practitioners (nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants) and pharmacists would support collaborative drug therapy agreements to enable pharmacist provision of ECPs without a prescription ("behind-the-counter"). We assessed these and other strategies to improve access to ECPs among a random sample of 1000 healthcare providers using mailed surveys. Obtaining a 50% response rate (n = 495), we discovered that the majority of total respondents (and a significant proportion of physicians) favored improving ECP availability "behind-the-counter", over-the-counter or both. Support among mid-level practitioners was more guarded: 39% of respondents supported pharmacist provision of ECPs and more than 20% wanted more information. Among pharmacists, 46% said they would participate in a collaborative protocol for provision of ECPs. Results demonstrate the degree of support and illuminate potential obstacles to pharmacist-provided ECPs. While there is general support among Minnesota providers regarding ECPs, a campaign to educate providers about recent scientific data on ECPs and collaborative drug therapy agreements should be initiated.
Department of Surgery, University of California San Francisco, 1411 East 31st Street, Oakland, CA 94602, USA. anjalikumar@post.harvard.edu
Anjali S
AS
Kumar
Lisabeth C
LC
Hall
Amy
A
LePage
Paul Chuwn
PC
Lim
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003277:Contraceptives, Oral, Combined / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008910:Minnesota; D010595:Pharmacists; D011247:Pregnancy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D003277:Contraceptives, Oral, Combined; D003281:Contraceptives, Postcoital