title: Identifying and managing performance concerns in community pharmacists in the UK.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore current arrangements for identifying and managing performance concerns in community pharmacists in the UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 20 senior managers from community pharmacies and locum agencies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A strong emphasis was placed on business performance alongside other aspects of professional performance in the identification of performance concerns in pharmacists. The majority of concerns were identified reactively, through customer complaints, peer- or self-referral, or following a dispensing error. Community pharmacies sought to manage performance concerns internally where possible, but only the larger organizations had the infrastructure to provide their own training or other remedial support. Several challenges to identifying and managing performance concerns were identified. There were few mechanisms for identifying and supporting locum pharmacists with performance issues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Being 'for-profit' organizations, community pharmacies may prioritize business performance over ensuring the professional performance of pharmacists, the responsibility for which would be left to the individual pharmacist. This may be detrimental to the quality of care provided. With the growth of independent sector providers more widely, these findings may have implications for the regulation of other health care professionals' performance.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Pharmacy Workforce Studies, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. sally.jacobs@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hassell
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seston
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schafheutle
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010559:Personnel Management; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000458:organization & administration; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000592:standards*; D011361:Professional Competence; D036301:Qualitative Research; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: community pharmacy; performance concerns; performance management