PharmaPay: Exploring the intersection of practice and payment
Adam Easterbrook, PhD
Research Methodologist, Advancing Health
Mary Berger
MA (Sociology) Student, SFU
Research Assistant, Advancing Health
Angela Pang
MHA Student, UBC
Associate Director, Research, Policy Reporter
PharmaPay: Exploring the intersection of practice and payment
On June 1st, 2023, the BC government legislated a policy permitting BC pharmacists to prescribe for 21 minor ailments and contraception services (MACS) further expanding pharmacists’ scope of practice. The work aims to understand pharmacists’ experiences concerning their expanding scope, including their perceptions of current payment models. A constructivist thematic analysis methodology guided this work. Pharmacists and pharmacy owners were recruited using faxes, e-newsletters, snowball sampling, and word of mouth from rural, suburban, and urban communities representing both chain and independent pharmacy settings. Three broad themes were identified: (1) Pharmacists’ experience of tension regarding their roles within health care systems; (2) Systemic factors that influence pharmacists’ work related to conflicting business-driven goals of many corporate chain pharmacies; (3) Pharmacists’ perception of challenges to autonomy over their own practice. This project explores using a holistic approach to expanding the roles of pharmacists and examining the influence of structural and systematic factors on pharmacists’ experiences. Using such an approach allows for a better understanding of the intersection of various factors in pharmacists’ experiences, such as payment model, pharmacy type, and perceptions of worth.