Patient care services in rural Minnesota community pharmacies.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the availability of medication therapy management (MTM) services, point-of-care (POC) testing, and disease management resources between rural and urban Minnesota community pharmacies.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Minnesota in 2006.


METHODS
Owners and operational managers of 564 Minnesota community pharmacies.


METHODS
Mail survey containing structured, quantitative questions. Resulting data were separated to evaluate urban and rural area community pharmacies.


METHODS
Staffing trends, MTM services, and patient care services of urban compared with rural community pharmacies in Minnesota.


RESULTS
Urban and rural pharmacies reported allocating nearly the same percent of a typical day to filling and dispensing prescriptions (approximately 70%). A higher percent of rural community pharmacies offered patient care services in 5 of 15 categories, including drug information services (55.7% vs. 45.6%), provision of durable medical equipment (43.4% vs. 32.6%), dyslipidemia management (7.8% vs. 3.8%), hypertension management (14.6%% vs. 7.3%), and MTM (29.4% vs. 18.7%).


CONCLUSIONS
Although the time allocated to dispensing medication was approximately 70% for both urban and rural pharmacies, a significantly higher proportion of rural pharmacies reported providing MTM and other direct patient care services. This may be a result of geographic isolation and greater use of pharmacists as providers of first-contact care in these areas.
Haag
Jordan D
JD
College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN 55812, USA. haag0047@d.umn.edu
Stratton
Timothy P
TP
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019468:Disease Management; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D054539:Medication Therapy Management; D008910:Minnesota; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000379:methods*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population