title: Cooperation between community pharmacists and general practitioners in eastern Germany: attitudes and needs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Regions of decreasing medical supply with long distances to pharmacy or practice require a good collaboration between practitioners and pharmacists.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine and compare the attitudes of community pharmacists and practitioners towards each other regarding collaboration. Setting Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Germany.
  
  
  METHODS
  749 general practitioners and practitioners specialized in diabetes care as well as 344 community pharmacists received a 38-item survey regarding their interrelations and attitudes towards each other.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive statistics of the practitioners' attitudes towards pharmacists in comparison to the pharmacists' attitudes towards practitioners in terms of perception of their role, reliability, functions, frequency and helpfulness of contact, cooperation in promoting medication adherence and quality of communication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rates were 19.4 % (n = 145) for practitioners and 24.4 % (n = 84) for pharmacists. 144 (76.6 %) of practitioners and 79 (71.5 %) of pharmacists strongly trusted the other health care providers' statements and expertise (p = 0.0076). Practitioner-pharmacist interactions on average were of low frequency. They were, however, perceived to be helpful. The majority of pharmacists (62.7 %) regard their responsibility to ensure adherence with long-term medication to be equal to that of general practitioners. In contrast, the vast majority of practitioners (90.1 %) estimated their proportion of responsibility for adherence to long-term medication to be 75 % or more. At the same time, practitioners perceived the pharmacists' current influence on patient adherence to long-term medication as generally positive (65.0 %). This is in line with the pharmacists' self-perception (94.7 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The general trust of both health care providers towards each other is a good pre-condition for further collaborations. However, increased frequency in practitioner-pharmacist-interactions is necessary. Additionally, the role perceptions of pharmacists and practitioners should be harmonised as there are still misunderstandings in the responsibilities of both parties.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacy, Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 17, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna-Franziska
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Wüstmann
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Haase-Strey
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kubiak
authors.forename: Christoph Alexander
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ritter
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D055118:Medication Adherence; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D013038:Specialization; D035502:Trust