Accessing rural populations: role of the community pharmacist in a breast and cervical cancer screening programme.
BACKGROUND
Community pharmacists are one of the most frequently visited health care providers in the USA. The article describes a demonstration project which used community pharmacists to educate and enrol low to moderate income and medically under-served women into a statewide breast and cervical cancer screening programme.


METHODS
The Nebraska Department of Health programme entitled, 'Every Woman Matters', funded through the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, provided no cost or low cost mammography and pap smears to eligible women. Patient enrolment packets were distributed to 91 pharmacies expressing an initial interest in participating. These were reduced to 28 pharmacies based on their commitment level during the initial 3 months of the study.


RESULTS
One hundred and fourteen patient referrals were generated from the 28 network pharmacies; two from pharmacies in urban areas, and 112 referrals from rural sites. All referrals were from the 22 independently owned pharmacies in the study.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that the use of independent community pharmacies in the rural setting can be an effective method of recruiting women into public health programmes.
McGuire
Timothy R
TR
Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Medical Center College of Pharmacy, Omaha, NE 68198-6045, USA. trmcguir@unmc.edu
Leypoldt
Melissa
M
Narducci
Warren A
WA
Ward
Kathy
K
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010594:Pharmacies; D010595:Pharmacists; D012424:Rural Population; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*